Scarlet Deepdelver of Woody End
by KotoriRod
Summary: She was the odd one, always running through the forest and adventuring there. She wasn't even a Took. But she always kept to the borders of the Shire. That is, until her friend gets pulled into an adventure and sees the opportunity to join and go on something that will only happen once in a lifetime. ((Rating may rise depending on what is written))
1. Scarlet Deepdelver

She was always different from the other hobbits, always having been so close to the borders of the Shire where the trees grew higher and higher to give such a faraway view of a land she'll probably never see.

That's what Scarlet Deepdelver of Woody End had done since she had first been able to walk on her two unnatural small feet for a hobbit. She wasn't alone before, no she wasn't indeed. She wasn't even of Woody End, but of Bag End.

There had been another that used to climb the trees and traverse the woods with her as children before he soon became such a domesticated man, always smoking that pipe of his every afternoon like a lone codger. Always eating and drinking alone in which she would come over to destroy his little peace.

Standing on one of the tallest trees in the Shire, she could see nearly every hovel and home that was claimed by her people. However, there was something that was odd. There was a tall grey figure in front a particular home of someone she knew.

She slid down the tree, occasionally stepping on a branch or two before landing on the ground and running on her bare feet towards Bag End.

Scarlet barely reached the road before seeing the grey figure having already disappeared around the corner and from her view. Looking over to the door, she opened the gate and ran up the stone steps. Knocking on it, she smiled a bit to hear Bilbo Baggins ranting on something about not wanting to go on an adventure. As the door opened and revealed her to the man, Bilbo's irritated face lessened a bit and only a bit.

"Scarlet… what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be traveling through the leaves in Woody End?"

She shrugged, ignoring the slight insult to her past time before asking her own question. "Who was that grey fellow who came by?"

Bilbo began to stammer, waving a hand side to side as if to dismiss the person who had tried to confront him. Scarlet looked displeased at her friend's denial of answering her question. She then decided another protruding question, "Can I stay here for the evening? It is rather cold tonight." She couldn't help but smile at Bilbo rolling his eyes at such a request.

**XxxxX**

"Are you sure you don't want anyone to join you for supper?" she mumbled a question, staring at him as he cooked his fish.

It has been nearly four days since the visit of the grey figure but Bilbo didn't seem to be bothered by the man's short visit on his daily life of leisure and contentment. He sighed, pausing just a brief moment before answering, "Please, Scarlet. Can you just go home? I like to eat in peace."

"But you are always alone… remember when we used to eat in the forest and just randomly shout that a troll was going to eat us? You would always play the hero," she giggled. She caught a small smile, just so small that if she wasn't looking for it that she would have not seen it. But it had disappeared as fast as it came, followed by a frown.

She sighed soon, filled with defeat before she stood up. Scarlet was about to excuse herself as Bilbo was setting himself up. She always knew when she wasn't welcomed, though it was a habit of wishing to reconnect with her childhood friend. As the hobbit began to sprinkle the lemon on the fish and Scarlet was just down the hallway, a loud ring echoed through the hole. The two stopped what they were doing, both looking at each other questionably.

"I thought you said that you had wished to dine alone," she spoke while Bilbo nodded and said "I am not expecting anyone." Placing down his napkin that he had tucked into his shirt, Bilbo walked towards the door as Scarlet curiously followed. As Bilbo opened it, the two nearly just stared at who was at the door.

It was a dwarf in black, a rather intimidating one. Scarlet had nearly cowered to stay out of view from next to Bilbo as she was obviously frightened by this newcomer. The man slightly regarded her but mostly focused on the owner of the home, introducing himself, "Dwalin, at your service." He did a bow, showing a rather odd sense of courtesy for one such as himself. His eyes didn't break from looking at Bilbo, not even blinking.

Bilbo returned the gesture with less confidence but more bewilderment before the one named Dwalin stepped inside.

"Uh… I'm sorry, but have we met before?" Bilbo asked, quite confused by this man who was simply walking into Bag End. As he passed the two, he looked a bit annoyed at the question as he simply answered, "No."

"Of course you wouldn't know a dwarf, Bilbo," she muttered under her breath. She noticed the side glare she got from Bilbo, obviously indicating that she was heard.

**XxxxX**

She stood nearby in the dining room/kitchen where they watched Dwalin devour the whole plate that was to be Bilbo's dinner. Discomfort was evident in the hobbit's eyes, glancing as the dwarf bit the head of the fish and eating it with mild satisfactory. "Do you have anything more?" Dwalin seemed to demand which Bilbo seemed to quickly oblige.

Looking around, he stared at Scarlet. Quirking an eyebrow at the stare, she was then ushered to the side to make way for the hobbit. He reached for a plate of soft cookies that was obviously made for a snack by the fire. Taking one cookie for himself, he handed the rest to the dwarf who eagerly began eating the sweets. Deciding that this was more of his own matter to deal with, Scarlet moved to go for the door before hearing the bell ringing off once again.

Blinking blankly, she could hear Dwalin taunt Bilbo, "That would be the door."

The door opened once again, showing a dwarf that was much the height of Bilbo and had white hair and beard. He had a rather large hook nose and an inviting smile. His tone of voice even matched that smile, filled with manners before stepping inside. The dwarf had introduced himself the same manner as Dwalin did, only his name was Balin. There had to be some relation to the two as she watched the dwarves interact with each other in a friendly manner, hands to arms like brothers.

Soon, the two dwarves were raiding the pantry of the Baggins, throwing out the blue cheese as Bilbo seemed to try and talk to them. Scarlet watched as they seemed to gather all the food, as if there was to be…

The bell rang once again, making both hobbits turn to the door. Bilbo looked at Scarlet before she noticed him staring at her. Gesturing to her own self and the door, he nodded which made her groan unhappily. Walking towards the door, she opened it to reveal not one dwarf but two. They looked rather young compared to the first dwarves that had arrived and both seemed to be curious as they seemed to be not expecting her.

"Are you sure this is the right house?" she heard the blond whisper to the other.

"Probably just the wife," the other whispered back.

"Didn't Gandalf say that he would be living alone?"

Deciding to answer their question but bringing the actual person they were expecting, she then called, "Bilbo! It's the neighbors! They are asking what the entire racket is all about! I do believe they do not wish to speak to your cousin." She gave a bit apology to him mentally as he went to the door, opening his mouth to explain before seeing the two dwarves.

They were Kili and Fili, the blond one being the first and dark brown haired one as the second. They were fair looking as the one named Kili said, "You must be Mistah Boggins."

Scarlet couldn't help but let out a loud laugh but covered her mouth as Bilbo glared back at her. She took that moment for her to take her leave, heading towards one of the guest bedrooms she used to sleep in when she came over to Bag End. Once inside and the door closed, she giggled at the name that was butchered so easily by the dwarf.

"Boggins… hmm," she repeated again, giggling at that name. She then looked about, staring at the books that were placed there by the late Belladonna Took. She had been the only woman who would help her along with her husband. She saw them as her parents, losing her own tragically long ago and the incident was so traumatic that she barely remembered what happened to them. Taking one of the books, she sat down on the bed, placing it on her lap as she opened the large parchment and began to read from wherever the page had opened to.

**XxxxX**

After turning the page a few times, she heard a knock on her door. Rolling her eyes, she closed the book and headed to open it, assuming that it was Bilbo trying to avoid the four dwarves that had entered into his home uninvited and was possibly kicking her out if he was successful with putting out the latest visitors.

It was not Bilbo. It was a new dwarf, one that was even younger than the ones she had last seen and from the noise coming from the dining room, there had been more who had come. He seemed to be doing an odd dance on his feet before Scarlet quickly realized what the boy had come to look for. A slight panic rose in her face as she quickly ushered the dwarf towards the bathroom.

It was a small incident but the two were able to overcome it as the dwarf stepped out, sighing in relief before politely saying, "Thank you so much, ma'am." Scarlet nodded before she held her hand out, introducing herself. The dwarf returned it, smiling and answered, "Ori, at your service."

The two seemed to talk for a bit, heading back to the dining room as she saw that the pantry was just empty… which was a first. Looking to the dining room, she could see that there were many more dwarves as Ori joined them. Bilbo looked like he was ready to explode which was both worrisome and amusing.

"Hey! Scarlet!"

She looked over, seeing Ori waving her over to join him and his brethren. She shook her head, politely while declining with a gesture of her hands. Scarlet froze a bit, looking back to see Bilbo glaring at her. Easily reading what he was assuming, she quickly denied, "Hey! I wasn't the one who invited them. I live in the _woods_, remember? No dwarf has ever lived in the woods… or so I have read."

Before Bilbo could go into his tirade of ranting, a dwarf stepped between them with a large cup of ale, heading towards the kitchen. "But come on… at least it's lively. Way more exciting than what you have," Scarlet tried to up his mood which was obviously a failure as Bilbo went back to trying to stop the dwarves from possibly trying to destroy his home. She was suddenly handed a cup of ale by a dwarf with his silver hair tied together at the bottom but a probably silver band. Carefully taking the cup, she spoke her thanks but didn't drink it.

But with how everyone was drinking carelessly and happily, it was a bit hard to deny such an act that was being done by all the others.

As she was about to take a sip, she was suddenly pulled towards the kitchen where she spun a bit into the room and standing, spilling none of her drink before she was standing to a dwarf whose hair seemed to spike in three different directions. There was another one who seemed to speak in some odd language, gesturing to her as he spoke.

She tried to catch the words, understand the movements before saying, "I'm sorry… I don't… I don't understand."

"He says that you should sit down and enjoy! Tonight is a merry gathering!" shouted the star-haired dwarf, all in the room cheering as did a few others from outside of the room.

All she could do was nod and cheer rather weakly before stepping out of the kitchen to hallway, sighing in relief that she could at least gain some air.

"…pillaged the pantry! I'm not even going to tell you what they did to the bathroom."

Guess the hallway was going to stay full like the rest of this part of the Baggins' home.

She looked over to see Bilbo telling all that was going wrong during this unexpected party to an old man. Scarlet looked at him, seeing that he wore a grey robe. "Hey… you're that man from earlier this morning," she pointed out, getting the conversationalists focused on her now as the old man nodded with a smile. "Ah, yes. I'm Gandalf the Grey," he spoke, shaking hands with Scarlet whose eyes lit up from the name.

"Wait… Gandalf? The one with the fireworks?"

Gandalf smiled a bit as the childish smile grew on her face before she shouted, "I remember your fireworks when I was little! Oh my! What are you doing here?"

The man chuckled a bit before he gently but quickly pushed her back to avoid a dish flying where she had stood. She turned to see it caught by the one called Kili before even more dishes were being thrown to him which he caught easily. Looking over, she saw that the one who had accompanied with him was the thrower, tossing dish after dish. The sound of pounding on wood was heard along with stomping on the floorboards got their attention.

"Stop! You'll blunt them!" Bilbo scolded before the one wearing a hat taunted, "You hear that, boys? He's says we'll _blunt_ the knives."

The sounds of the utensils pounding on the table and stomping was suddenly as a sort of tempo. Her head tilted curiously as she stepped a little forward as she saw the two dwarves she had opened the door for start off singing.

_Blunt the knives and bend the forks!  
Smash the bottles and burn the corks!  
Chip the glasses and crack the plates!  
That's what Bilbo Baggins __**hates**__!_

The tempo picked and she noted that someone was playing some instrument that she couldn't point what it was at first. The dwarves began to all sing together as they began to stack the plates and dishes together.

_Cut the cloth and tread the fat!  
Leave the bones on the bedroom mat!  
Pour the milk on the pantry floor!  
Splash the wine on every door!_

_Dump the crocks in a boiling bowl;  
Pound them up with a thumping pole;  
And when you've finished, if any are whooooooooooooooooooooooole,  
Send them down the hall to roll!_

Scarlet had been clapping her hands to the music that was playing about, the dwarves suddenly were bards. However, her clapping slowed down and lessened when she saw Bilbo glaring at her briefly before trying to stop them from possibly destroying the plates. But upon seeing them from a less frantic view, Scarlet noticed that they were rather careful to the dishes and were cleaning the mess they have made.

_That's what Bilbo Baggins hates!  
So, carefully! Carefully with the plates!_

Scarlet walked after Bilbo who ushered into the kitchen before seeing the plates and cups stacked high but were clean. If there had been a better light, she would have sworn they would have sparkled. As the dwarves laughed at Bilbo's unneeded worry-aching, there was a pounding on the door, making everyone silent for once since the men have arrived.

"He's here…" Gandalf spoke calmly.

**XxxxX**

There were thirteen, thirteen dwarves that were inside Bilbo's hovel and for once, it was a bit crowded… too crowded for her liking. The last one, the named Thorin, was inspecting Bilbo after having asking of his combat skills or lack of thereof. After he was scrutinized by the dwarf, he and the others headed off towards the dining area in which to give the man some food.

She noticed Gandalf had laughed with the dwarves before groaning irritably and looking after the final dwarf with disappointment.

Scarlet sighed before she quickly quipped, "Uh… Bilbo?"

The hobbit turned and seemed to glare at her without meaning to. If he had done this on other times, she would have brushed it off like always. However, she was in company of strangers and thus her confidence was much less than it usually was.

Her request died in her throat before she muttered, "I'll just… be in the guest room for the night then. It's a tad unhealthy of me anyways to go… walking out at night… heh."

Bilbo's expression softened just a bit before he stepped to be by her side. "Let me make a lantern ready, Scarlet," he suggested by she shook her head.

"I'd rather not let people know that I am blind as a bat when it is dark. I'll just stay in the room until daybreak. I promise to keep it clean."

Bilbo quickly nodded before seeing the dwarves gesture the latest arrival to the dining room. He hurried after them, feeling the need to be close by in order to make sure that they do not cause such a ruckus again.

"May I inquire to you about something, Miss Deepdelver?"

The woman turned, staring at the grey wizard as he seemed to gesture downwards of her. Looking down, she looked at her bare feet that were like any other hobbit, but there was a big difference. They were small, like ones that would be considered natural as if she was a human child. Feeling a bit conscious about the fact that was the only thing that made her different from all the other hobbits, she kicked down her leg sleeves that spooled around her feet. "Tis nothing. Might be a trick of your eyes, Gandalf. You are a bit old," she quipped as if to change the subject subtlety. "I bid thee good night."

Before the old man could ask again, press further or deny the fact that he was old, she was already gone from the area and into her room which she locked behind her. Her small feet stepped over each other absently, making her even more conscious of her abnormality as a hobbit. Pulling up the leggings of the large pants she always had tied up; she glared at them and muttered to them, "Why can't you just grow normally?"

She now lay on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. Her mind wondered a bit, remembering how some of the children would ridicule the one who was not like everyone else. It was short lived, mostly because the parents of those children were easily silenced by Belladonna who always said that because of her small feet, she was probably the fastest hobbit in the Shire. However, it still never stopped the odd stares by those who were outside of Hobbiton, those who never heard of the forest-dwelling hobbit. Maybe that's why she never really connected with Bilbo after his parents died.

She went to sigh, wanting to at least sleep away the night so she can go back to the forest and just get lost in the trees like always.

As she was close to drifting off to sleep, a rather loud thud made her eyes open widely and alerted her that something probably bad happened. Those dwarves did come here with axes and knives and all sorts of sharp weapons. Running out of the room, she nearly tripped over her pant leggings before she ran towards the dining hall where she saw Bilbo semi-unconscious on the floor. "What did you do?!" she shouted, kneeling beside her friend as she checked him for any injuries but it more looked like he fainted. There was a folded paper in her hand, rather long to be like a scroll with a side attachment to it.

"All I said was that he should think of a furnace with wings, sharp teeth, searing pain and poof, he would be a pile of ash," the one named Bofur answered as she read the paper. It seemed to be a contract of sort which she began to skim through carefully for the referenced part. She soon came to the one word which was "incineration".

"What are you trying to get him to sign?" she muttered a bit loudly, hearing probably an answer which she seemed to ignore as she saw the two signatures at the bottom. There was indeed room for another signature but the name beside it said "Burglar".

"What the… are you saying you are asking Bilbo to steal something?"

**XxxxX**

After helping Bilbo into a chair in the living room, Scarlet was sitting with Balin as he began to explain the need of the contract to be signed by Bilbo.

"So… what exactly is he supposed to steal for you?"

Balin seemed to be ready to answer her question rather easily but the one named Thorin stood beside the silver-haired dwarf and seemed to give a silent command to refrain from speaking to her. Scarlet frowned a bit and then walked away towards the fireplace where Bilbo was moving to stand up, saying, "Sorry, Gandalf. You got the wrong hobbit."

He nearly bumped into her which he sighed. "I thought you were in bed already. Do you want a lantern now?"

"I think it'll be best if I do head home now… you really need some time alone… or mostly alone, to think about this deal they are offering," she answered.

"Do you think I should do it? Go out there with a clear chance that I might not come back to Bag End?" asked the hobbit. Scarlet smiled softly before answering, "We've been always going on 'adventures' when we were kids and listened to stories that your mother would hand us. I know it changed after they died but… don't tell me you don't want to step out of that door and go on an adventure?"

It was silent before he just stepped away, heading to his room. She sighed with what felt like the tenth time today, more than she had ever done in one day. Walking back towards the fireplace living room, she noticed that all the dwarves were gathering into that area.

Moving back to step out of place, she was beginning to find another way around them to head for the door when she heard a few of them humming. This wasn't happy and merrily humming. It was much more solemn, calm… and also sad.

_Far over the misty mountains cold.  
To dungeons deep, and caverns old.  
We must away, at break of day.  
To find our long forgotten gold._

Seeing all of them stand up slowly, she continued to watch before she seemed to feel the emotion of the song come over her. Yes, it must be normal. A young woman like herself would be so affected by such a song so easily. But something like this felt like a personal thing, one that which she should hurry and leave alone.

_The pines were roaring on the height.  
The winds were moaning in the night.  
The fire was red, it flaming spread.  
The trees like torches blazed with light._

Taking a deep breath, she took a small candle that was lit and carefully moved to leave the home of Bilbo. Just as the door was to be shut and her standing in the cold night, a hand seemed to stop it before opening it. There stood Balin, the second arrival of the merry group of dwarves. "I apologize, miss. But we are also taking our leave," he spoke as all the other dwarves had their things.

Nodding, she stepped back as she said, "Then I'll bid you all farewell, Master Dwarves. Good luck on your journey."

With that, she turned to leave but Gandalf seemed to join her in her stride towards home nearly uninvited. "May I accompany you towards Woody End, dear? My wagon is just down this road."

She nodded, walking in pace with the much taller man compared to the natural height of a female hobbit.

"I believe you were always one that loved to climb the trees," he commented, making Scarlet a bit hesitant to confirm that statement but this man had probably lived way longer than anyone she has known in the Shire and possibly their grandparents.

Nodding her head, she answered, "Yes. I always liked just being able to feel the air and warmth above the trees. Better than the cold ground."

"That would be a rather handy tool… if you were ever wanted to go out to the world," Gandalf slipped those words but Scarlet shook her head.

"I am no adventurer, Gandalf. I am… rather frightful of everything beyond the borders of the Shire," she confessed.

"So be it," he sighed, out of contentment or disappointment it was hard to tell. They soon reached her home in the ground which was just a few ways away from where Gandalf seemed to have placed his horse and wagon. "Be sure to be up bright and early, Miss Deepdelver. I'm sure it would be good to at least have one walk together for a time."

Scarlet stared at his retreating form, wondering what he meant by those words but shrugged before heading inside and lighting everything. It wouldn't matter for the fire to be around, given that she would be sleeping soon but she still needed to find her way to bed.

* * *

_**It has been awhile since I have actually posted something. All other projects that were on this account might remain discontinued unless the muse of those stories return. Please place some input and make sure to tell me if my character gets Mary Sue-ish... I fear that for most.**_


	2. Going on an Adventure

The sun's rays shined through the window, gently coating her with its warmth as it signaled that a new day has begun once again in the Shire. She sat up slowly in which she would go into her routine of stretching and making herself breakfast. Scarlet would then bathe in the nearby stream to wash away the dirt of yesterday despite probably getting today's dust on her right afterwards.

That's what she should be doing. She has always done that without question or any thought, like a habit that would be done unconsciously while she had barely woken up.

However, she sat quietly on her bed, staring at the light that shined through the window while looking around her small hovel compared to the large home of the Baggins. It was all she really could ever ask for, that and the fact that it was just outside of the forest and near the road to Bree.

Then the words of the night before said by Gandalf played through her head.

_Be sure to be up bright and early, Miss Deepdelver. I'm sure it would be good to at least have one walk together for a time._

"Was that… an invitation?" she wondered before she stood on the floor, her barefeet tapping a bit as she began to ponder on what decision she would do today.

She could just go back to her regular routine, a normal life of leisure and climbing trees while watching travelers enter and leave Hobbiton to never be seen again and hear of their stories and tales. Tales of grandeur and adventure that would be obviously fib a bit but still… they were on adventures.

Shaking her head, she took a deep breath before she stood up. Nodding to herself, she placed her hands together and exhaled.

Scarlet had delayed long enough.

She began to hurriedly gather her things into a pack she had bought years ago as a child after hearing several stories and tales. She was actually going to do it. She was going to leave the Shire and go off… but she would have to convince someone first if she were to be able to join on such a quest that she heard last night.

Only then can she really be out of the Shire and see the world…

**XxxxX**

"Bilbo! _**Bilbo!**_"

A soft fist was knocking hard on the door, the loudest sound in such an early morning of the day in Hobbiton. The ones who were just a few yards away turned to look at why the woman would even be bothering anyone at such an hour when there was chores to be done.

"Bilbo Baggins! You wake up this instant!"

Knocking was soon joined by the erratic orchestra of the bell, the muffled ring echoing through the room when suddenly, the door swung open and Scarlet was nearly ran over by a rather excited Bilbo Baggins.

The man paused briefly, a smile on his face while his appearance was most different today. That and he seemed to be packed very thoroughly or one would be so in such a haste fashion. The same sort of fashion that she was donned on this fine morning.

A long silence went on between them before the two let out a laugh that was filled with exhilaration as he asked with clear observation of her appearance, "You wish to come along?"

"Most certainly," she spoke, smiling as she adjusted her pack. Looking at the parchment that had been handed to him by Balin, she saw Bilbo's signature on the paper.

"We must hurry. They might have already reached Bree!" she urged as the two ran down the hill, at first taking the walking path before finally having to cut straight down the hill. Bilbo jumped over fences and a hobbit wheeling a large pumpkin where as Scarlet did the same with the fences but was able to avoid having to run into the contraption.

Finally reaching the dirt road, one of the neighboring hobbits shouted after them, "Where are you two going?"

"Can't stop! We're already late!" Scarlet shouted as she ran through the two hills that had the path cut through it.

"Late for what?!" the hobbit shouted after them before Bilbo answered, "We're going on an adventure!"

**XxxxX**

The company of Thorin Oakenshield was just passing by Woody End, Gandalf staring intently at the trees as if he was trying to find something. Thorin was not one to be curious but he was indeed cautious of this wizard's intentions and hidden plans for joining this expedition to retrieve what was rightfully their's. Words were ready to be said before someone else's cut through the conversations that were happening with his kin.

"Wait!"

Everyone turned, including Thorin, to see the hobbit that had been so inclined to decline the contract that was waving about in his hand. His surprise was shared with the others, all silent as Bilbo Baggins walked towards Balin and handing the contract. As the dwarf checked the signature, Thorin suddenly noticed on how Bilbo seemed to look back. It was as if he was waiting for something to come.

Something landed hard in front of him as he turned quickly with his hand on the handle of his blade, seeing the young female hobbit from last night. She was dusting herself off and she too seemed to carry a pack with her.

"And what brings you here?" he spoke, not caring to give a title to the woman who had none besides her name which he had no knowledge of.

The girl frowned before stating, "I am here to join your quest!"

Some of the men snickered at the statement, most knowing that Thorin would decline the woman's presence. However, Gandalf spoke, "Ah, Scarlet. Good for you to have joined us. I see that you have arrived a bit faster than our dear Bilbo."

The woman nodded before realizing she was in company of strangers. The short-lived enthusiastic attitude disappeared to make way for the shyness he had seen before. It was irritating, to say the least but he said nothing as he heard Balin greet Bilbo into their company before Gandalf added, "And so to you, Scarlet Deepdelver."

Thorin didn't miss the smile that traced her lips before staring at Bilbo triumphantly. Despite this being his quest, it seems that the wizard had taken the role on who they would allow into their circle. He didn't have time to argue. They had already delayed long enough for their burglar to come to his senses and now a fifteenth member had joined them. "Give them a pony," he ordered before continuing his leading of the caravan. Gandalf paused a bit, helping Scarlet to sit with her on his horse as she was placed behind him.

He yet again heard Bilbo stammer on about not needing a stead, feeling better to be walking but was easily silenced when he heard the man yelp. He didn't need to know that Kili and Fili did his orders without need of saying them, the hobbit now on his own pony.

**XxxxX**

They were now out of the borders of the Shire as Scarlet glanced back at the woods that she would climb and jump through all her years of living.

It would be a long time before she would see them again; she knew that before looking to see Gandalf slowing down so he would be riding beside the pony that Bilbo was awkwardly riding on. He held the reigns up in a stiff way, looking unsure.

"Bilbo, relax. It's not going to eat you," Scarlet spoke, though she was more happy that she wasn't riding her own pony. She never really feared animals but she had never met one that was bigger than her by herself.

She got a glare from her friend before a small purse flew between them and landed in Oin's grip as another purse flew by to Fili.

"What's that all about?" Bilbo asked, a question she was curious for the answer as well.

"Oh, they took wages on whether or not you'd turn up," Gandalf answered, speaking as if it was a regular thing. Scarlet knew it was, having heard a few dwarves that had traveled before through the Shire making bets on certain things here and there. "Most of them bet you wouldn't."

Bilbo looked to the wizard. "What did you think?"

There was a long pause, Scarlet staring at Gandalf and wondered if the man would believe that Bilbo was for sure not going to come at all.

A coin purse flew towards him and he caught it easily, smiling as she followed too. Bilbo seemed greatly surprised at this as Gandalf spoke, "My dear Bilbo, I never doubted you for a second." As he pocketed the small purse away, he turned to look over his shoulder at Scarlet, "And you too, my dear. I'm sure you have been practicing that rope trick all these years."

Her ears lifted up a bit, shocked that he would even remember when she first showcased the string with the dart end. She had swung it around mostly, just playfully. It was a bit awkward to have him think she was to practice such a childish thing all these years. However, she just gave a small nod before muttering, "Once in a while… a bit…"

Bilbo then sneezed suddenly, complaining about the horse hair before panicking about his handkerchief. Most of that conversation was drowned out as Scarlet began to feel a bit bored just sitting on the horse and wait for nightfall to come. She moved in her seat, staring back at the road they have passed but seeing three other dwarves that were trailing behind them.

Her eyes befell on the two that had arrived together last night, blinking a bit on how the dark haired one did not sport a beard like everyone else. The staring had become aware as the one known as Fili teased, "Hey. I'm right here, milady. Don't need to go staring at this poor man's mug for the journey."

Scarlet's face reddened quickly as she waved her hands frantically. "No! I do not mean to stare like that, sirs. I was simply wondering why he has no long beard like everyone else! Not that it is bad!" she spoke, her embarrassed ranting seeming ready to go on before Fili and Kili both laughed while Oin was trying to listen with his hearing aid, though he soon gave up as he did not wish to be involved with the young dwarves' antics.

"Do not fret, dear miss hobbit," Kili spoke before his brother said after him. "He is rarely offended by this. He is still just a pup compared to rest of the company." His brother then shoved his arm, making the blonde dwarf laugh while the dark-chocolate haired one gave a mocking pout.

Scarlet sighed in relief but proceeded to face back forward, holding on to the grey robes of Gandalf as she now seemed to regret even speaking with those two. They spoke in such weird talk and it didn't help that she would glance back to see them catch her stare before turning away to speak with each other.

It was official at that moment: she disliked those two.

* * *

**_Thank you to all that decided to follow this fan fiction. I'll do my best to not disappoint you. Sorry that this chapter was much shorter than the previous one. I still have to reread the Hobbit and mostly going on what I remember or what was shown in the movie._**


	3. Night Time Story

Scarlet had always hated the night, staring at the fire as it was the only thing that was bright and lit. She was huddled in blankets and a knitted coat that she was given by Ori. Bless that young dwarf for his kind nature.

She felt Bilbo move, stand up. Scarlet just smiled beneath her covers, knowing the hobbit was so used to quiet and silence to sleep that the snoring from Bombur was indeed distracting and irritating. She sat up a bit, the covers around her as she pulled some of it over her head as if to mimic a hood. Huddle in the two layers, she stared at the fire that was warm before glancing at the ones who were now on second watch which where the brothers that had been teasing her these past four days.

Hearing a nicker from the ponies, she turned to see exactly what was Bilbo doing as he had walked in that direction. It was no good as the flames' light went only so far before she went back to looking at it. Closing her eyes briefly, she was starting to at least ignore the snores and fall back asleep where she sat when a shriek echoed through forest that was far away and viewed as only just an outline over the cliff side, which was she was assuming as she had seen them when the sun was setting and Thorin had ordered their rest to be here.

"What was that?" she heard Bilbo voice a question she wished to hear an answer once again. She might as well be silent through the trip.

Kili glanced around absently as he quietly answered, "Orcs…"

As Bilbo repeated the term in order to know that he wasn't hearing things, Scarlet noticed that Thorin had sat up abruptly just as the words left Bilbo's lips. He seemed to look around, alarmed and awake. She had heard tales of Orcs, blasted creatures that were like hell spawns but worse for they were real. She didn't listen to what Kili and Fili told Bilbo but as her friend looked back at the direction the sound came from with much more fear, she frowned beneath her sheets as she caught site of Kili smirking to his brother.

"You think that's funny?"

The ones who were awake turned to look at Thorin, leering at his nephews as he added, "Do you think a night raid by Orcs is a joke?"

It was easy to hear in his tone that Thorin was deeply infuriated by such an act done by his nephews and it affected them greatly, Kili mostly as he looked down at his hands and muttered, "We didn't mean anything by it."

Thorin scoffed as he walked away into the darkness, saying, "Of course you didn't… you know nothing of the world.

Blinking a bit, Scarlet looked to see that the younger of the nephews was deeply hurt and also ashamed to have annoyed his uncle. For a moment, she felt sorry for Kili. Such a joke was indeed fun for him but it was quite obvious that receiving a scolding like that had deeply unsettled him.

Balin comforted him by speaking, "Don't mind him, laddie. Thorin has more cause than most to hate Orcs."

Her ears then lifted as she heard Balin tell the story of when they had first tried to make Moria their alternate home from Erabor, only to be conflicted by the presence of Orcs that had made that place their home. He spoke of a battle that was nearly lost as the death of the Dwarven king of the Durin line was beheaded by a pale one named Azog. From how he was described, Scarlet felt a slight tingle of fear fall up and down her spine.

It was then she heard of how Thorin had stood up, helped turn the tide of the battle against the Orcs after dismembering the pale orc. The battle may have been won by the dwarves, but Balin spoke of no celebration. It was told that many of their kin had been lost and the few that were alive were mournful that so many of their brothers had been sacrificed for such a thing.

"And I thought to myself, there is one I could follow… there is one I could call king."

She had laid her head down as he was finishing the tale, sleep soon taking over her. She didn't see the dwarves stand up as to show their loyalty to him nor did she hear what was said to have happened to Azog. She had only wished to gain the sleep needed to last through another day of nothing but riding. But there was another reason why she had wished to rise early.

**XxxxX**

The sky was tinted with orange, just a bit but it was enough light for her to see clearly that the sun was beginning to rise bring upon a new day. The fire pit had long been snuffed out by the cold and lack of wood as she then removed the blankets that were around her. She carefully rolled them as they had been before placing them near her pack, fishing around inside it before she finally found what she was looking for.

Gandalf's words about her little childhood practice had got her thinking about it. So with some rope and discarded dagger she had found while scanning the road, she had made something that similar to the toy she had as a child. Walking over a place nearby but also open enough for her to practice, she swung the rope around a bit to gain a sort of momentum.

It had been long but thankfully her travelling through trees assisted her on swinging the dagger on and on before she used her foot to kick the blade part out fast and it embedded into the tree. Panic rose in her quickly as she ran over to it, spouting apology after apology to the tree while she had tried to figure out a way to take out the blade from it without fully harming it even more.

"What exactly are you doing?"

The gruff voice made her turn about face, seeing that it was Thorin who had stumbled upon her short term practice of the rope dart. Looking around, she noticed that no one had followed him here and the scrutinizing stare she was getting merely made her shrink where she stood. As she muttered an answer beneath her lips, the dwarf scowled as he repeated the question again with authority and volume. Her head lifted up, staring at him as she answered in equal volume, "Just playing around! I'm sorry!"

She quickly covered her mouth, both because the way she had worded such a practice of hers made it sound like she was simply doing this for fun and also that she may have rudely awoke the others. This, however, didn't affect the dwarf as he walked over to her. He seemed to be inspecting her before looking at the embedded blade. Reaching past her, he pulled it out rather easily before staring at it with inspection.

After what felt like sunlit days, Thorin held the blade out to her. Her mind didn't work at first until her hands shot out to catch it as he released it from his grip.

"You are quite different than the hobbits I have seen in the Shire briefly," he commented, the most she had heard from him since the start of this whole adventure of her part.

His comment was true; she was indeed different. Besides her small feet, her hair was straight as hobbits were to be of curly hair. And if one were truly and utterly superstitious, they would have called her a devil spawn with her added red eyes. She nodded; something of herself she wished to be ignored.

She was thankful that he didn't press on further as he turned away, heading towards camp as he said, "It seems you aren't as useless as I have thought you were, acrobatic." Scarlet couldn't help but smile widely at the words, unsure if it was more like a statement or praise. She accepted it as the latter, rewinding the rope so that she would practice once again with more confidence.

Though the word he had used for her seemed a bit less thought of, making her sigh at the lack of impact to this company.

* * *

_**Just a little warning, it will probably be a few more days before I update this once again. I need to get chapter 4 proofread and also get to at least chapter 10 before continuing.**_

_**Thanks for reading you guys and see you in the next update.**_


	4. What the Water Gave Me

It was just pure bad luck that the rain had come down, pouring harshly on the company while they continued their journey to Erabor.

Using one of her blankets as a sort of cover, it wasn't long before the water seeped through and now drenching her hair that now clung to her face. Though she did not complain, it was common to deal with such dealings back in Woody End when the rain would visit a few times. She would just wash it off in the shower.

But she wasn't at Woody End, she reminded herself. She was far from it, far from the Shire and the home that she and Bilbo come from.

Hopefully, there would be a stream or something that she can carefully wash the clothes and the grime of the days that they have traveled.

Dori then shouted, "Master Gandalf, can you do something about this deluge?"

She looked back as did Gandalf towards the dwarf, giggling a bit as it was a bit obvious that the dwarves were not so used to the rain as people who have lived on the outside. Gandalf spoke, stating that if he wanted the rain to stop was that they would need to employ a different wizard. She sneezed a bit, tuning out the conversation about the other wizards that were like Gandalf.

It was starting to get rather cold for her, a slight shiver and shaking in her body was evident. But she ignored whatever it was that was ailing her at the moment. It was most likely just the cold rain and once it stopped and they were to take a short passing, it would be fine.

**XxxxX**

Yet another sneeze left her as the group had decided to camp in the safety of the woods this time and thankfully, there was a stream. After telling Gandalf and Bilbo she would clean her clothes, she had approached it with great enthusiasm. She pulled off all but her underclothing and trousers, letting them hang on a tree branch somewhere. It would be awhile for them to dry but as the sun was now out again and warm, it will be dry before night comes.

Scarlet waded into the pool, now knee high in it which wasn't that deep before she plunged herself in it. Resurfacing, she sighed happily, pulling back her hair as she began to play around in the water, giggling and laughing like she had done as a child. What felt like an hour was only thirty minutes but she was delaying her cleaning long enough. Standing up in the water now, she waded over to the shore to grab the soap when she noticed someone had approached the stream.

She quickly swam to a nearby tree trunk that had fallen over and just barely touched the water. Seeing who it was, she called out, "Kili? Fili? What are you doing out here?"

The two dwarves looked at her direction as they both smiled. "Bilbo got a bit worried when you spoke of cleaning up," Fili spoke first before Kili finished, "So we volunteered to keep guard on you."

Scarlet had thought that this was done for another reason, leering at them between the branches of the fallen tree. She then saw the two brothers raise their hands up and both spoke, "We promise to keep our eyes closed until you are dressed properly or if you are start screaming in distress."

Hearing that and seeing that they were keeping their eyes closed and backs facing her, she soon swam from her hiding spot. Grabbing the soap from the shore, she quickly cleaned as she wasn't sure how long it would be until they became curious on what a female hobbit would look like with lesser clothing.

Once she was fully clean, or what she deemed in a quick glance of herself, she quickly trudged out of the water and went over to the clothes. Darn, they were still a tad wet. She quickly went to the other side of the clothes, covering herself as she called, "If… I may ask… can you return to the camp and get my pack? …I need one of my blankets."

"Is it alright if we can peek?" they called out together, looking over their shoulders with closed eyes. She nodded before humming a reply. Eyes opened while they looked a bit disappointed at the woman being so shy around them. Nonetheless, Kili offered to fetch her pack while Fili leaned against the tree.

Silence soon followed, the stream being the only sound heard. Scarlet tapped her fingers on the branch that held her clothes while eyeing at the dwarf with great inspection. For a dwarf, he was rather easy on the eyes despite her never seeing an actual person with facial hair up close. It gave a rather look of maturity, if it wasn't for the other fact that this dwarf was as mature as a child in a festival.

"Care to tell me on how you and our burglar know one another?" she heard him ask as Scarlet peeked over the branch to look down at Fili. He returned the stare, waiting for an answer while he smiled.

Patting her drying clothes, she answered, "I used to play with him a lot when we were young, running around in the forest while searching for wood elves or pretending to be off having adventures like those in the books and tales his mother had shared. His father was able to help me hake my own hovel in Woody End as to let me traverse without being away from my own home. It was to be a sort of permanent one… his parents died soon after."

She remembered on when she had visited during the mourning, Bilbo just staring where his parents' room had been which his room was now. Pinching at her shirt, feeling it becoming loosened and arid, she continued, "After that, he kept to himself while I continued to be the pandemonium hobbit of the woods."

Even though she had jokingly spoken that last part, it had made her a bit of an outcast to the other hobbits. She wasn't invited to any celebrations or suppers nor did most of the children dare to enter the woods. Maybe that was one of the reasons why she wanted to get away, she thought to herself. Outside of the Shire, no one really knew of the hobbits so in turn would not know of her.

Hearing a snap behind her, she looked over her shoulder to see Kili holding her pack and staring at her.

If it were another time, she might have not been as conscious as her upper body was indeed covered and her lower was simply wearing trousers that reach just past the knees. However, this was not such a time as was mentioned as she screamed and called him, "_**Dwarven heathen!**_"

A loud slap was heard from afar, followed by a loud yelp of pain as the camp where the rest of their company was waiting looked at the direction. Most of them chuckled at the obvious fact of what had occurred while others just shrugged it away, knowing it was indeed their own fault for whatever deed caused them to have such a punishment.

Minutes later as the supper was just being ready to be handed out, Scarlet stalked past the group with her pack in tow while she claimed an area in the campsite for herself. Fili and Kili were soon to rejoin them though Kili had a rather large red mark shaped like a hand on his face. Bilbo had already reached Scarlet's side, asking what had happened. She simply glared over at the dwarf responsible who flinched a bit from the stare, having not been used to one that was almost like his uncle's.

Whispering so that only her fellow hobbit could hear, she spoke, "That dwarf is trouble… I do not wish to be alone with him ever until this journey is done."

"Then someone should have stayed home," Bilbo teased, making him get shoved a bit by Scarlet who just smiled a bit despite the matter.

"She didn't have to hit so hard," Kili whined a bit, sitting with the other dwarves while Fili laughed. "Just be happy she didn't kick you, less you were to be sitting side saddle tomorrow." The company laughed at him as did Kili, all knowing when to have fun and joke.

* * *

_**Yay! Update! This is more like a filler chapter but hopefully it's good. I'll be probably posting again tomorrow if I don't get too caught up with my freedom this weekend.**_


	5. Don't Feed the Trolls

She stretched her arms a bit, feeling a bit stiff as they had been riding once again on the ponies. Oh how she missed just walking everywhere instead of destroying her pelvis on this infernal animal. Sighing, she stood up on the saddle behind Gandalf, seeming to be taller than him as she asked, "Which direction are we heading?"

Gandalf looked back at her, the black-haired hobbit with red eyes staring down at him while keeping steady with hands on his shoulders. He chuckled, obviously knowing on what she had planned to do at the moment. Thankfully, he was leading as he answered, "Just follow the road. I'll be sure we'll be close behind you and I'll tell you when we are diverging from it."

Once she nodded, he pulled the reins on his horse, pausing briefly before she jumped up on a nearby branch. Pulling herself up, she quickly rolled her sleeves down, putting her thumbs through an opening to be like gloves while she tied down her pants.

She then fell backwards, not hearing one of the dwarfs, maybe Ori, shout in panic. Scarlet grabbed the branch, swinging on it before jumping on to the next one that was closest and over the path. She soon jumped from tree branch to tree branch, sometimes swinging if it was too far away but kept on the path.

Bilbo laughed as he then called up to her, "If you see any apples, throw them down!"

She turned a bit, looking down before waving to him as to tell that she heard. Scarlet then pulled out her rope dart, hoping this trick will work or she'll be hurting pretty badly from the height she was now. As she dropped down, she stabbed the dagger into the branch where it was strongest and used it as a rope swing to the branch that was too far for a reach of her legs or arms alone.

Back below, some of the dwarves seemed to watch her swing from branch to branch like a monkey. "Does she not worry about splinters on her feet?" Ori spoke, showing great concern for the female hobbit. Knowing that it was directed to him, Bilbo looked to where Ori was, a few ponies ahead, before he said, "I believe she has dealt with that from time to time, but it seems she has no real worries and is a bit prepared… but I am not truly sure."

"Do you not both live in the same area? She was there when we had come to dine with you," Balin stated, making Bilbo groan inwardly at the memory of his pantry was probably still empty.

"No, she lives in the woods. We haven't… really talked much lately," he answered.

Fili understood why as he looked back up at the girl who took a pause now, reaching up for a few apples above her. Pulling his pony closer to his brother's, he nudged Kili and pointing up to where she was. As the silent and short conversation ended between the two of them, the dark-haired dwarf took out his bow and carefully aimed for the branch of apples.

The arrow flew, hitting the sort of the branch as the twig with four apples fell. Fili was supposed to catch it and goad the girl down to ride with them, a sort of peace offering of yesterday's events.

It was unexpected what happened next.

Scarlet jumped off, catching the apples in her arms and was reaching for the other branch. It was too weak as it snapped once her weight was pulled beneath it. Falling down, Fili quickly rode to be below her and held his arms out. Catching her, the sudden weight made the pony nearly fall to the ground on its hooves but mostly stepped a bit in place.

The hobbit had her eyes closed, having expected to feel a great searing pain or possibly death. Instead, she felt arms holding her by curling around her shoulders and beneath her knees. Opening them, she looked up at her rescuer as Fili asked, "Are you alright?"

She was about to say thanks when she heard another pony ride up, Kili staring with worry while he still held the bow in his hand. Putting two and two together, her red eyes glared at the two of them before two loud slaps were heard and duo shouts of pain followed. Thorin glanced back, his own stead still trotting with the rest of the company as Scarlet stalked past him, fuming and hold an armful of apples. Looking over to his nephews, he saw both of them rubbing their cheeks while Kili shouted, "You're welcome!"

The two brothers then saw their uncle stare at them; both now up in attention as they tried to look professional. The dwarf prince rolled his eyes at his nephews, shaking his head while Balin chuckled and gave them an approving gesture.

Jogging up to Myrtle, Scarlet held up the apple to Bilbo.

"Oh, thank you!"

The two rose up the fruits in their hands as if they were cups of beer, even shouting cheers before laughing.

**XxxxX**

They were now unpacking; nightfall was soon upon them as they reached what looked like the ruins of someone's home that was burned down. She stepped over a few fallen pieces of wood, ends charred before she found a burnt doll with a torn arm and missing eye. Scarlet felt sad as she gently placed the doll down somewhere, as if to be seen in case the spirit of the child that had owned it would find it.

"I told you… I will not go near that place."

Her ears perked up as she glanced over to the main cabin of the destroyed home, seeing Thorin enter in it as Gandalf was already inside.

"Why not?" Gandalf demanded. "The elves could food, lodgings, and advice."

"I do not need their advice," Thorin slowly spoke, as if to silence the wizard of this useless prodding on changing his mind. It didn't stop the wizard as he added, "We have a map we cannot read. Lord Elrond could help us. He is one of the few that can truly tell what is hidden on that map."

"Help?" Thorin repeated the word, filled with distaste. "A dragon attacks Erebor… what help came from the elves…"

"Do not exclude the one who indeed came to your aid, Thorin," Gandalf reminded him. "Or do you wish to condemn him as well to your hatred of his kind?"

Feeling that such a conversation was a bit private, she looked back at the laying doll. "An elf?" she repeated silently. Truth be told, she had never really heard the whole story about what had happened at Erebor, only from what was said by rumors and small tales. It had peak her interest from time to time, but it mostly nestled into the back of her head until this moment.

"Everything alright?" Scarlet heard Bilbo speak. Wondering who he was speaking to, she turned to see that Gandalf was walking the opposite of where they seemed intended to go. His stride even shown irritably and disdain. As the hobbit once again asked a question she wished to speak of, Gandalf replied to the company's burglar, "Seeking the company of the only one who has any sense around here."

"Who's that?"

"**Myself, Mr. Baggins!**"

The wizard's shout made her jump, never have she seen him so angered before. "Gandalf, wait!" she called after him, running carefully through the path as the wizard mounted his horse. He rode off without even saying farewell, or where he was going to be off to.

"Come on, Scarlet. We're hungry."

Her hair bristled a bit, anger flowing on her face as she glared back at Thorin. Obviously, it did not deter a glare down at her by him and the retreating wizard. It was at least good he isn't calling her an acrobatic but to show such disrespect when people offered counsel. Huffing a bit, she looked over at the pony that held the cooking materials. She sighed, given that she had never really cooked for a big group before.

This could end in disaster.

**XxxxX**

Stirring the pot, the hard stew gurgled which made Scarlet scowl at it. The aroma was normal as a potato flopped up before sinking back down rather quickly. Bilbo was standing besides her, smiling nervously as he lied, "That looks… really good."

Giving a tired glare, she saw Bofur walk over to go serve the stew to the others. Scarlet quickly walked away to the edge of the light from the fire, seeing nothing further than that but did not want to hear the dwarves dropping dead from her cooking. Why did she not learn how to cook instead of just picking food that was already made or grown from the ground?

"Scarlet, come along."

Looking behind her, she saw Bilbo's silhouette and stood up. "Where are we going?" she asked.

"I'm going to bring these to Kili and Fili."

Hearing those two names, Bilbo froze a bit from the glare she gave him.

"I am not associating with those sexual-craving, scheming dwarves." Her voice showed great negativity towards the offer

"They haven't actually come on to you, mostly harmless words of teasing," Bilbo spoke in a matter-of-fact tone.

Scarlet noticed at the fire that Thorin seemed to be able to hear their conversation, or appeared to. She scowled before finally picking between the two options she could only see at the time.

Did she want to stay here with the always negative leader who was obviously against her presence in the company or be with her friend and the two idiot nephews of his?

**XxxxX**

Thorin watched as the young female hobbit stand up and say something to Bilbo. He wasn't sure what their conversation was but he still had to be watchful of those who were foreign to his kin.

From the start, he did not wish to enlist help outside of his dwarven brethren to claim back their home, but Gandalf had spoken some true points.

The dragon knew of their scent and none of them were known to be really sneaky. From what he was told of Bilbo, he was to be the one to get in for them to reclaim their home. But these were tales of when the hobbit was a child and even if he was, he had already told the wizard that he would not be guaranteed of the man's safety.

And then there was this young female hobbit. It was bad enough that she forced herself into this quest but to have her distract his nephews so much…

However, it is amusing to see them be scolded by any other woman besides their mother. That was probably one of the reasons why he had not tossed her out in the first sight of her that morning. The boys still needed discipline, even with nearly seventy years of it from him and his sister.

He watched Scarlet hold on to the back of Bilbo's coat as the two ventured towards the area where they had left the ponies. He remembered overhearing either Bilbo or her mentioning about not being able to see in the dark. Was it really that severe for her to hold on to someone? Did she not live a forest that was never occupied with such lighting?

Then again, why would he be thinking about this? The two were adults, of age for their race. They should be able to take care of themselves in the woods with a simple errand of giving food to his sister's sons.

**XxxxX**

"Just a little bit further," he spoke softly to her, hand still clinging to the back of his coat. It was rather funny, given that this had happened many times when they were kids and came home late to Bag End.

Always holding to the back of his coat, scared of being lost in the dark… it was one of the few reasons why he would go out to Woody End and walk around in the forest at night; just to be sure she was in her hovel.

Seeing Kili and Fili staring at the ponies, Bilbo walked up to them rather quickly while Scarlet nearly stumbled. He was tugged back a bit, nearly dropping the bowls of stew. Bilbo was able to keep his balance and held out the boys to the two young dwarves. However, he noticed that they didn't acknowledge his presence which was rather unusual as they were always acknowledging everyone around them. That and their faces seemed to be filled with a concentrated expression.

"What's the matter?"

"We're supposed to be guarding the horses," Kili spoke first, a slight halt to his voice before Fili finished. "Only… we've encountered a… slight problem."

Scarlet scowled in the dark, looking around and seeing nothing as she held on to Bilbo.

"We had sixteen…"

"Now there's… fourteen…"

Feeling Bilbo move a bit forward, she felt him turn around and move a bit before taking her hand. Carefully guiding her to one of the ponies which she believed by the feel of the coat hair and the straps, he had her hold the reigns as he said, "Just… wait here, alright?"

"What's going on? Did something happen to the ponies?"

No one seemed to answer her as she held on to the horse desperately. People were walking around, that she could hear. That and she heard Kili say that Daisy and Bongo were missing. Her eyes widened as she looked around, staring through the dark as she shouted, "Wait! You lost the ponies?!"

She heard people shushing her, most likely the brothers as Fili said, "Don't be so loud. We don't want Uncle to know. Best not worry him. As our official burglar, we thought that you might like to look into it." That last part was obviously left towards to Bilbo as he began to frightfully describe what had probably taken the ponies.

Scarlet kept on clinging to the reigns, seeing nothing around her before she saw some sort of dot in the distance. Unsure what it was, she pointed it out and said, "There's something over there."

She was suddenly yanked down, feeling two people beside her while she was now probably behind a fallen tree. As it was now fully quiet, she could hear gruff voices speaking to one another.

"What is it?" she asked, looking at the bright dot from far away.

"Trolls…"

That was all she got before hearing movement, feeling whoever was beside her jump over the log and seem to be heading towards the dot. The smell of her stew was nearby but was soon taken away, leaving her alone in the fresh air and darkness.

"Uh… Bilbo? …are you there?"

No one answered her as she tapped her fingers on the wood, looking around. Nothing seemed to take shape and silence would soon going to mess with her imagination. It had been some time since she had been left alone in the dark, but she wasn't going to panic. Not here. It was safe… besides the light far away that could be holding trolls. "Damn you to everything, Bilbo!" she quietly shouted before standing up slowly, stepping over and carefully walking towards the light. She stumbled once in a while, clinging to each tree she could feel before the light was becoming a bit bigger.

The ground began to shake, making her stand still before she heard ponies nickering and passing her by. Frowning, she continued to traverse carefully in the slowly dulling darkness. Fear was slowly leaving her for a brief second until she heard leaves and running happening past her. She stood still, waiting patiently for whatever had done so was gone. As silence around her came back, she let out a sigh of relief before she heard the bolstering voices that were afar were now close.

"I don't like horse. I never have! Not enough fat on them."

"Yep, they were trolls. Only they would even consider eating such animals," she thought to herself as Scarlet kept on moving slowly forward until she had duck behind a tree.

Three trolls were sitting around a fire while four of the ponies were stuck in a roped pen too high for them to jump over and too low for them to go under. And as she looked closely, she that one of them was Myrtle, Bilbo's pony or the one he has been riding since the start of this whole adventure.

Huffing, she carefully climbed the trees, swinging from each one while trying not to make a sound. When she heard the conversation halt just a bit, she paused and nearly fell down to the ground but hugged the large wood plant until one of the trolls resumed talking. Once she got close to the pen from above, she saw Bilbo staring over at the trolls and seemed to be coming up with a plan, she hoped.

Climbing to the lowest branch that was shadowed by the fire, she watched Bilbo begin to slowly creep towards one of them. Looking up, she caught sight of what looked like a large swivel blade. She was about to silently cheer for him when he suddenly began to turn around. Doing a sort of whistle like a bird, she caught Bilbo's attention as he looked up.

Obviously the first question was going to be on why she was there, but she stopped him as she began jabbing her finger towards the direction of the knife. Bilbo seemed to do a gesturing while mouthing "no". Scarlet then formed a fist, crushing an imaginary object in her hand before pointing at him.

Sighing, he resumed heading over to them, barely getting squashed when one of the trolls fell back by getting hit by the one who was stirring the stew. Scarlet watched intently while mentally wishing him luck, fingers clawing into the tree while she bit down on her lower lip in the tension. As she looked at the ponies, she did a gesture for them to be quiet which Myrtle seemed to neigh to the others to do so.

"Good girl," she whispered before hearing the loudest sneeze that was ever made. Turning over, her mouth was covered with her hand as her face was unsure to be disgusted or fearful.

It should be fearful as her friend was now in the hands of the trolls. It was also gross as he was covered in one of their snot. She turned away from the snot-covered sight, holding back the urge to vomit.

"Wut iz it?"

"I dun know but I dun like da way it looks wrong!" said the one that sneezed as he threw Bilbo to the ground as if he was the disgusting thing, which was true at the moment. The disgusting part was gone now as she glanced around, knowing full well that Kili and Fili were here but there was no sign of them at all.

As she looked around, Scarlet quickly hid as the trolls decided that they were going to eat Bilbo. One of them grabbed them as she was about to scream but what was she going to do? Was she really going to get their attention on her?

"Drop him!"

"Kili?" she spoke a bit too loud but when she looked around the tree, seeing the dwarf had already cut the leg of a troll and standing confidently with the sword.

"You what?"

"I said… **drop him.**"

Just as the troll tossed Bilbo to the dwarf, the whole group jumped from the cover of leaves and bushes and started to attack the trolls. It amazed her that they all seemed to come at once, making her glad that she wasn't one of the large creatures. She carefully climbed down as she saw Bilbo grab a fallen knife that belonged to one of the trolls.

She ran to his side as quickly as she could, thankful that Gandalf's little tale of hobbits being small and unnoticeable was paying off. Holding the large knife, Scarlet and Bilbo started to cut through the rope.

That's when she noticed one of the trolls had seen them, glaring as he seemed to be able to lose the interest of the dwarves and stalked towards them. Her hand reached to her rope and attached knife as she only went into instinct. She had to buy Bilbo time to fully cut the binding to free the ponies as she unhooked the rope and began swinging the blade just as he reached for them.

The blade nicked the trolls hand, making him stagger back but it only further angered him.

The smirk on her lips was only momentary as she now had a very peeved troll who was staring down at her with annoyance. Ducking beneath him, she flipped while still keeping the dagger swinging around by the string so that she had a sort of shield around her. Trolls were not known for their smarts but for their brute strength as he simply backhanded her hard enough for her to fly and hit the dirt wall. She was dazed, lying on the ground as her rope dart lay tangled just out of her grasp.

"Bilbo!"

Shaking her head, she got up to see the trolls facing the now gathered dwarves while holding the hobbit. They could easily tear him apart as she picked up her dart, screaming as she threw her dagger at one of them. It just made the one of her right flinch when it stabbed into his shoulder as he grabbed the rope and simply plucked it out. He pulled it a bit more before flicking it away into the forest, making her scoff angrily.

But the creature didn't turn back to look at her, she remained unnoticed as the trolls stood far from the fire and holding Bilbo, threatening to rip his arms off.

Trying to weight her options, which were several but none were going to save Bilbo, she soon realized what she had to do.

**XxxxX**

Thorin reluctantly threw his sword into the ground, glaring at the trolls who held their burglar captive. Damn the hobbit for getting himself caught.

He then caught movement, seeing something small walking towards the fire and picking up one of the small logs. As the fire graced the figure's face, he saw it was Scarlet.

Their eyes met briefly as she stared back at him, unable to show what her intent was.

She then ran off into the woods and disappeared.

"That damn whore," he muttered beneath his breath as he glared at the trolls.

The girl had left them to their fate.

**XxxxX**

She traversed through the forest, unsure which way to go. She had always been on the horseback and cared not to remember the path as she felt that she never needed to be the one in front.

Scarlet had to find him and quick or the others will not see the dawn.

She then stood upon a road, looking back and forth before staring up at the sky. There was slight color but not enough for her to abandon her torch and walk through the darkness. A nicker and a neigh was heard, making her turn to it as she shouted, "Gandalf?!"

The galloping go closer before she saw the familiar grey appearance of the wizard, sighing in relief before running to him. "What is it, Scarlet? Why aren't you with the others?"

"It's… trolls! Trolls got them!"

Without waiting, he picked the girl up by her offered hand before heading towards where she pointed out. Once they were there, the two hopped off the horse and carefully traversed through the woods. Stopping just short of seeing the campfire, she could see that half of the dwarves and Bilbo were tied in sacks while the others were being roasted over a pit. Bilbo was standing, looking like a worm as he spoke about how to cook dwarves, which was rather odd.

She was then forced to look at Gandalf as he ordered, "Help Bilbo distract them."

"Wait! How do I help him?" she called after him but it was too late. He was gone.

Huffing, she looked back at the camp as she walked through the trees before an idea formed in her head. Climbing into the trees, she jumped from tree branch to tree branch before reaching just beyond their sights.

"…To skin them first!"

She nearly fell from her branch as she stared at Bilbo in great shock. Was that what he was planning to do? Tell them how to cook them?!

It only then dawned on her on what he was doing and why Gandalf told her to help him. Jumping to the branch that was fully in view of the trolls, she shouted, "He's telling the truth!" She bobbed a bit and gulped before the troll that was talking with Bilbo looked at her.

"And who a' you?!"

At first, she was ready to question on how they would forget about her. Then again, it wouldn't be such a good idea to remind the troll that she was the one to have cut his hand. She took in a deep breath, thinking of the many things that she had read before spouting out, "I… am the spirit of this forest!"

Everyone except Bilbo seemed shouted at her, calling on her lie as she rolled her eyes. However, the troll seemed to believe it as he spoke, "Aye! I know those things! They supposed to be all magical and tree like! Where's your glowy parts?"

"Forget about the spirit! I'm hungry!" said the one with the whiny voice as the troll walked over, grabbing Bombur. As he began to dangle him above his mouth, ready to eat him, Bilbo shouted, "No! Don't do that! He's… got parasites!"

"…seriously?" she thought to herself, hiding the face that asked if he was even trying to do anything. Although it worked, the troll quickly dropped Bombur back in the pile as Bilbo continued, "In fact, they all have them. In… their… tubes."

"Yes, it was I who had done it," Scarlet played along, her voice acting as if she was majestic and all knowing. "They are being punished already. Do you wish to be punished as well?"

"I think we should listen to her. She might give us parasites," the whiny one spoke but was silenced as the gruff one shouted, "You lying little fairy."

"Spirit," she corrected him. "It's a spirit."

"You're not a spirit! You're a liar and a traitor! And we don't have parasites," Kili shouted along with the others. Scarlet took in a deep breath as she looked down to the sacked individuals, seeing Thorin thrown in their lot. She gave quick nods towards the trolls and eyes glancing at them, any sort of signal to get Thorin to understand and tell the others subtlety what Bilbo and she was trying to do.

"You have parasites! If we ever get out of this, I'll—AH!"

Kicking Kili in the back was subtle enough as everyone went silent, staring at their leader before looking back at her and Bilbo. It finally clicked as Oin spoke first, "I have parasites as big as my arm!"

"I have parasites, huge parasites!" Kili spoke afterwards.

Everyone soon began to play along, making her giggle a bit. Oh how she would love to talk about this back home. She soon returned to her role as the gruffest of the three stalked towards the two hobbits, obviously being the rather smartest of the trio. "And what do you propose then? Let them all go?"

The two hobbits shrugged a bit before the gruff one grabbed Scarlet by her hair, making her yelp as she held on to the hand so it wouldn't feel like her brain was being ripped out. "Ah! Let go!" she shouted.

She had heard some of the dwarves snap at the troll who was manhandling her before she was then ungracefully dropped. Running to hide behind Bilbo, the fact that he smelled worse than he was before was the least of her worries as the troll spoke, "These two little ferrets are taking us for fools!"

"**Then let the dawn take you all!**" a voice boomed around them as Gandalf stood on top of the rock that overlooked everything.

As the trio of trolls contemplated on whom he was or if they could eat him, Gandalf slammed his staff on the rock as it split into two. The sunrise shined on everyone as the trolls squealed and squalled in agony, faces and bodies slowly turning into stone. As they were soon to be gone, the dwarves cheered happily as Scarlet jumped joyfully.

"We did it, Bilbo!" she shouted as she hugged him. "We did—**AH! I'm covered in snot now!**"

She quickly let him go as Bilbo laughed a bit, seeing her look at her whole right side as it was covered with the troll snot. "Did they not clean you before trying to cook you?!"

* * *

_**A tad longer than the first. Thanks for reading again and I'll be updating probably by the end of this week. Tests and research papers are due.**_


	6. Gundabad Wargs

Everyone was getting cleaned up at a small waterfall, washing away the smell of troll from themselves as Scarlet was cleaning herself upstream of the others. Ori was in guard duty this time on her as he said, "Thank you for coming back, Scarlet."

Pausing from washing her hair, she looked at him. He was not alone, as usual. His brother, Dori and Nori, were always nearby. They were cleaning their clothes as they were now drying, putting them on while Ori was keeping watch the best as he could with courtesy.

"I wasn't going to leave you guys to be eaten. I had to look for Gandalf," she spoke.

She then noticed the look on his face before she swam to the edge, tugging on the young dwarf's shirt. He looked back as she was at least keeping herself covered by the rock she was resting her arms on. "Some of you may be rather obnoxious buffoons or insufferable thickheads… but you still are better people than those back at home and we are adventuring together. We all have to look out for one another," she smiled before Ori did so in return.

Two shouts were then heard before it was followed by splashes, drenching her once again in the cold water before looking over to see Fili and Kili swimming towards her. "What are you two doing here?!" she shouted, covering herself with her arms. The two swam over, mischievous smirks on their faces.

"Uh… what are you…?" she began to repeat but it was starting to lose their drive as their figures began to block out the sun.

Bilbo was just getting done, standing up and wading through the water before he heard shouting from above the waterfall. Curious as he was for being born of a Took, he looked up just as Kili and Fili jumped off the falls with Scarlet in tow. He watched them splash down into the water, the two males surfacing first and high fiving while Scarlet scrambled out of the water and stalked past Bilbo. Just as she was going to pass Gandalf and Thorin, she shouted, "You ever dare touch me again without my permissions, I will skin you both alive and stuff parasites into your tubes!"

**XxxxX**

Gandalf laughed as the girl walked back up the hill to where her own clothes and belongings were. Thorin seemed to scowl as the wizard said, "Good to see you are all in one piece."

Thorin looked obviously annoyed as he stated, "No thanks to your burglar and acrobatic. She had fled from us to leave us to die."

"He had the wits to pray for time which I doubt any of you could think of such a plan. As for Miss Deepdelver, she was searching for me. Had I not been looking behind, I may have missed her and also been oblivious to your troubles."

As always, Gandalf was right as Thorin nodded his head reluctantly. Gandalf stared up as Scarlet was walking back down from the top of the waterfall with Ori, fully dressed in a new attire. The wizard then looked back to where the trolls will forever be and wondered out loud, "They must have come down from the mountains."

"Why would mountain trolls travel so far down south?"

"Not in this age," Gandalf answered before his face became distant. "…Not since a darker power ruled these lands."

Thorin looked at him, wondering what the man was saying on such mentions.

"They could not have moved in daylight," Gandalf spoke, almost like he was changing the subject. It worked as Thorin knew that trolls tend to horde things that which they did not know their full worth.

**XxxxX**

She stood a bit far away from the entrance, keeping uphill from the smell while she held her over-sized sleeve over her mouth. It smelled of those trolls only it was like the dead bathed in it for months and then tossed in a few skunks to add more flavor. Needless to say, Scarlet had already thrown up after dealing with a whole night of rank.

It surprised her that she and Bilbo were even standing, given that they were never used to losing one night of sleep. She could feel the slight sense of fatigue overcoming her but she shook it off at the thought of falling unconscious near such a cave and the Durin brothers may try to do something to annoy her even more.

She heard nonsense about gold, typical dwarves, and Gandalf talking about swords.

She rarely paid attention as she stood outside with Bilbo.

"These trees remind you of Woody End?" she suddenly asked, sparking a regular conversation. The hobbit looked to his fellow kin, smiling a bit as he answered, "A bit… but there was more space and also no trees had fallen."

"Or wood elves to walk through in order to head into the West," she added, being careful on how she mentioned that as it would not reach Thorin's ears.

"You saw them?" Bilbo asked, eyes lighting up before she nodded her head. She lifted her hand with her pointer, middle and ringer finger up as she said, "Three times I have. They are the most beautiful people, Bilbo. I wish you saw them. They literally lit up the whole forest as they walked by… I could see everything but it was like seeing something in a dream."

"Maybe it was."

"I know what I have seen, Bilbo… but then again, you were always hiding in your hole like everyone else."

Bilbo was about to respond with another mocking insult when everyone began to step out of the cave. Thorin gave the two hobbits a glance; the red-eyed female hobbit stared down to see he had acquired a new sword. It was then she noticed Gandalf handing Bilbo one as well. It seemed small compared to the others as Gandalf spoke of what it was.

"It is of elvish made which means it will glow blue when Orcs or goblins are nearby."

Bilbo looked really against even holding the weapon as he protested, "I've never even held a sword in my life."

Gandalf nodded slowly before speaking a few wise words to him, ones that Scarlet ignored as she heard Thorin shout, "Something's coming!"

Everyone readied themselves, heading towards whichever direction. Seeing that Bilbo was standing still in his place, Scarlet called to him, "Come on! We must follow."

He unsheathed the blade as it shined anew.

"Bilbo!"

This time, her call was heard as he quickly put it away, tying it to his waist before following her down the hill and towards a large clearing. She slid down the slope while her friend took the way the dwarves had but that nearly proved to be a fatal mistake.

Shouting was heard, calling them thieves and murderers as a human dressed rather raggedly and hair so messy compared to Kili's. She had nearly even been trampled by his rabbit pack if Fili didn't pull her out of the way, standing beside her friend and seeing the man staring at them accusingly.

She was about to protest before Gandalf seemed to be the first to put away his blade. "Radagast," he greeted the old man who turned to him, first staring with anger before his expression softened only a bit before becoming alerted and worried. Looking at Bilbo, she whispered, "Did he say Radagast? Isn't that one of the wizards he spoke about a few days ago?"

Bilbo nodded before the two seemed to forget about them and the dwarves, walking off a bit as the Brown wizard was speaking incoherently.

"…he had bird poop in his hair," Scarlet added after the two old men were far away enough to not be heard. Some of the dwarves chuckled silently while Thorin sheathed his new blade. Everyone seemed to relax as she sat where she had stood, staring over up at Fili as she muttered a thanks.

"Hmm? You said something?"

"I said… thank you…" she repeated again, barely louder. Fili seemed to pretending that he couldn't hear her, holding his hand out as to listen once again. He was then shoved back by her who laughed just slightly as she said, "By the Shire, why do I bother? It wasn't like we were in actual danger!"

Fili just smirked and stood confidently as he was about to say something when a loud howl echoed around them.

"Was that a wolf?" Bilbo spoke, stepping forward while Bofur looked up in the trees. "Are there wolves out there?"

"Wolves? …no, that is not a wolf," the dwarf spoke, fear obvious in his voice. Everyone seemed to watch their surroundings carefully before Scarlet looked up at the top of some cliff that was a few yards above them.

Something seemed to be blurred by the mist, lurking slowly down. Soon teeth were shown where the mouth would be, sharp and long ones that seemed to drool and snarl down at them. The dark fur was prickly as the animal snarled the growl somehow only heard by her before she screamed.

Everyone looked to her before a loud bark made them look at the Warg, running down and jumping on to Bifur. Thorin chopped down on the creature's head. Scarlet saw another one, ready to scream again as fear was slowly taking over her. Fili pulled her close, covering her view of the creature as Kili drew an arrow and shot at the creature's eye. Thorin made sure that was the job was done before seeing what they were.

"Warg scouts!" he announced as Fili loosened his hold around Scarlet, the girl shaking and staring at the dead creature. "Which means an Orc pack is not far behind." Looking to Ori and Bifur, he ordered them to get their ponies ready for departure.

"Orc pack?!" Bilbo repeated to be sure.

At this very moment, the feeling of regret ever joining this adventure was now primary in her mind. She did her best not to show it as she looked at the others with the best straight face she could muster but her hand slowly reached and grabbed Fili's as a way to give her strength. Surprisingly, she felt him return the squeeze as he looked at her. "You'll be fine," he spoke, showing maturity that she hadn't seen through all the times she looked upon his face.

"Who did you tell of your quest, besides your kin?" Gandalf demanded, looking at Thorin accusingly.

"No one," the dwarf answered.

"**Who did you tell?**" Gandalf repeated again, much louder.

"No one, I swear!" Thorin snapped in return as the wizard looked around to be sure that another pair of Wargs were not lurking in the grass to ambush them again.

"What in Durin's name is going on?" Thorin demanded before Gandalf answered gravely, "You are being **hunted**."

That word… hunted… it shook her to the bone as she looked at Fili and Kili. Despite the great hate she held for the two for their immaturity, she had only been able to connect with them more. Ori was second. Kili caught her gaze before nodding, silently telling her that it will be alright. She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding in, shaking still as Dwalin muttered, "We need to get out of here…"

"We can't!"

Looking up, they saw that the two dwarves returned but alone. "We have no ponies! They've bolted!" the young dwarf finished. Bilbo turned, walking away a bit as he showed that he couldn't believe that this was happening.

The two hobbits mostly expected that the biggest danger they would face, or more like what Bilbo would face, was the dragon. Orcs was not mentioned at all.

"I'll draw them off!"

The group turned, looking at the mossy wizard who seemed to hold a rather mischievous smile. As Gandalf seemed to talk the Brown Wizard out of it, everyone gathered their packs that they had with them before the ponies left with the rest of their supplies. It was then she realized that she had left the last two rope darts she had made were with Myrtle.

Seeing Radagast leave to whatever he was planning to do, Gandalf ushered everyone to follow him.

Pulling on her pack, she was moving to follow before a hand was offered to her. Staring at the owner, the older of the Durin brothers nodded as if to confirm his promise that he said just minutes earlier. She nodded in return, taking a hold of his hand before they were off.

**XxxxX**

Thorin stared around the corner as the brown wizard was able to cruise through the woods long enough for them to cross to the other side of the plains. Soon, he saw the wizard fly out of the trees and lure the Orc pack away from them.

Looks like the crazy ones seem to have the best ideas.

It soon become a game of stop and go, pausing whenever they caught sight of the Wargs and turning to another direction that Gandalf had pointed to. It soon came apparent that even with the constant stopping, Gandalf was heading towards somewhere. "Where are you leading us?" the dwarf king demanded but the wizard did not answer.

They were nearly in the clear, catching their breath as he looked around to make sure that everyone was here. His eyes lay mostly on his nephews as Fili was holding the female hobbit's hand tightly. He could tell that she was fear-ridden, the sight of a Warf up close. Tales did only so much as to warn people of these creatures, but to see one so close.

"_She shouldn't have come…_" he muttered a bit to himself, though it seems it was heard as the girl looked up at him and held a short moment of self-disappointment.

That and the sound of a growl made everyone silent. Daring for a look, he saw that a Warg was above them, searching for its prey… them. It wouldn't be long before the animal would catch their scent and attack them… unless they attack first.

Turning to look at Kili, he nodded his head like sending a silent command as he watched his nephew take a breath and pulled another arrow. After nearly three long seconds, he observed his nephew step out of cover. A growl was heard and he saw a short moment of fear in his nephew's eyes. One shot hit the creature in its leg and another hit the rider, sending them toppling to land in front of them.

As they all tried to kill the two quickly, the roaring and shrieking was easily heard by the dying pack.

It wasn't long before they had to run again.

**XxxxX**

She didn't let go of Fili's until they found themselves surrounding on all corners minus a large collection of rocks blocking one way of escape. Scarlet released her hand as Fili took out his twin blades, standing in front of her as to protect her. Taking a breath, she held her hands up with the palms open as to fight them bare handed but it would do no good as she had no expertise in that sort of fighting.

"Where's Gandalf?!"

She took a moment to look back, seeing the lack of the only tall being of their company was nowhere in sight.

"He's abandoned us!"

"Great… more trouble," she muttered.

Kili fired an arrow, killing one of the riders while Ori shot out a rock with his slingshot, only hitting one of the ridden Wargs in the eye. Looking at the young dwarf, she ran over to him as she pulled him closer to be with the group while meeting eyes with the Orc. It smirked down at her, making her feel ill and a chill down her spine.

"Hold your ground!"

Thorin's voice shouted to the others, everyone getting into a fighting stance. Even Bilbo stood with the intent to fight as he held his new acquired blade. She could feel fear rooting her into the ground, the Wargs stepping so closely to them.

"This way, you fools!"

Everyone turned for a second to see Gandalf in the valley of the rocks before disappearing.

Fili quickly ushered Scarlet to go on ahead, preparing to cover their escape. As she ran, she paused at Ori who continued to fire rocks at the Wargs, only doing so much damage as hurting their eyes. She pushed Ori to head towards it first before she ran after with him, not seeing that one of the Wargs was chasing after them before it jumped to block her way. Ori was already near the rock, about to go to her as he shouted, "Scarlet!"

She took a few steps back as the large dog growled at her, teeth drooling and bare. Staring down at it, she stood still for a moment before ducking just in time when the Warg tried to attack her. She rolled, now sitting on the ground as the creature turned to attack the fallen female. She grabbed a fist full of dirt and dried grass and threw it into the monster's face, making it stop for a moment to try and claw out the soil from its eyes.

"Kili! Halfing!" Thorin shouted as she stood up, seeing Kili was just as far away from their escape as she was. She ran towards it as he held his hand to her like his brother did. She grabbed it almost immediately before they both jumped inside after Fili did. Scarlet let go of Kili's hand and immediately hugged Bilbo, glad that he was safe, that they were all safe for the moment.

It wouldn't be long before the Orcs would come over and find them hiding in this hole.

A horn bellowed through the air above. Swords and grunts and shrieks were heard before one of the Orcs was sent barreling down into the pit where they hid. But it laid still, dead. Thorin knelt down and seemed to pull something from the corpse. It was an arrow that had a rather fine tip to it but Thorin seemed to be disgusted with it after stating one word.

"Elves…"

The dwarf king exchanged glances with Gandalf, staring at him as he wondered what exactly the wizard has planned.

Scarlet did not care as she let out a breath of relief before looking at Bilbo and laughing. "That… was not fun," she joked while Bilbo just rolled his eyes at her.

"I cannot see where the pathway leads," Dwalin's voice echoed as he was at the opposite end of the cave before he stepped out, showing there was indeed a corridor. "Do we follow it or no?"

"Follow it, of course," Bofur spoke urgently for everyone as the group walked in a single file line through the corridor with Dwalin in the lead. Gandalf muttered something but Scarlet was already at the entrance of the path before she could hear it.

There were many twists and turns, some seemed to be impossible to get through but thankfully even Bombur's large size was able to squeeze through. It was then that the pathway grew larger and larger until three of them could walk side by side. This had made it able for Kili and Fili to walk with Scarlet who scowled a bit at their presences.

She knew what was to happen as she muttered, "I… thank you for your help back there… both of you."

"Huh? Did you hear something, Kili?" Fili spoke, looking over her head purposely.

"I believe not. It could be just the wind playing tricks with our ears," his brother returned.

She groaned as she walked ahead before turning to them, shouting, "You intolerable juvenile dwarves! Stop milking my gratitude towards you! This will be the last time I ever try to thank you!"

Catching up with Ori, she was suddenly out of the pathway before staring at a sight that nearly took her breath away.

It was as large as Hobbiton, a home that could house nearly every Shire folk she had met and more. It shined beautiful in the near sunset sky, a bright jewel that glowed away the trouble they had just experienced merely minutes ago. The waterfalls sounded so dully and relaxing as her eyes stared upon the place even more.

"Rivendell," Bilbo spoke quietly, his eyes in equal awe as to hers. After a moment, she squealed happily much to the dismay of the company before speaking to Bilbo. "Rivendell, Bilbo! We're actually here! No one at home will ever believe we came to the home of the Elves!"

"This was your plan all along," Thorin alleged accusingly to the wizard. "To seek refuge with our enemy…"

Scarlet stared as all the dwarves shared the same sentiment as their leader held.

"You have no enemies here, Thorin Oakenshield," Gandalf stated with obvious fact. It was the pride of these dwarves that made them blind to those who were not present at the time that Thranduil had left their people to wander the lands. "The only ill will that is to be found in this valley is that what you carry in yourself."

Scarlet bit her lower lip as Bilbo stared away, both know that the dwarf king had gotten badly spoken by the wizard like a mother scolding her child. She sighed as the argument prolonged longer until Gandalf told him that he would do the talking.

"Then let your talking begin once we reach the gates! I want to see the place!" she shouted impatiently as she ran ahead with Bilbo in tow, shouting after her to slow down yet also eager as well by the way he ran. It was almost like when they had left Hobbiton that morning, eager to go on this adventure.

Gandalf chuckled as he stared at the two running Halflings while the dwarves followed reluctantly in tow.

* * *

**_Yay! Another update for those who are keeping track on this fan-written story. Thanks for reading. It will be awhile before the next one will come out. Next week is the last week of this semester and I still have to grab classes for next semester. So please, wait patiently if you wish and I'll probably be updating on Monday._**

**_Ciao! Buono fortuna!_**


	7. Apples to Apples

She spun around a bit as she reached was probably the courtyard for this entry of Rivendell while Bilbo just smiled and looked casually. "This place is just as perfect as it was told by travelers," she spoke quietly before hearing a scoff from the brother dwarves. Glaring at Fili and Kili, she asked, "What is with you? Do you not see how beautiful this place is?" The two didn't answer her, making even frown a bit more before she ignored them and joined Bilbo's side.

"I do believe they seem to be jealous that you favor the elves more than them," Bilbo whispered as he continued to look around from his spot.

"Jealous? Why would they be jealous? It is not like we hold any merit to one another," she spoke quietly in return.

"Are you that oblivious, Scarlet? Then again, you were also the closed minded one between the two of us."

"I am not closed minded. How could you think of me like that?" Scarlet feigned sadness and hurt before Bilbo and she laughed together.

Meanwhile, the brother dwarves watched the two as they glowered a bit. Dwalin stepped over to them as he spoke of his opinion, "She is quite the handful, much like all our women."

"And yet she seems to prefer those knife-eared traitors over us," Kili spoke.

"She might even choose to stay here while we continue onward," Fili added.

"Are you two jealous?" Bofur joked to him as Dwalin was pulled aside to talk with Thorin. The brothers were appalled by those words as they both loudly whispered to him, "We are not JEALOUS!"

The hat-wearing drawf laughed vociferously, getting a few of the others' attention as Bilbo and Scarlet just stared at the man in great confusion. As the girl hobbit made eye contact with Kili and Fili, she sighed a bit before staring back the way they came as she seemed to continue whatever she was speaking about with Bilbo.

"_Mithrandir_!"

The company turned, seeing a brown-haired elf walk down the steps that were guarded by two soldiers. The man bowed to Gandalf, a hand over his own heart as he greeted, "It is a good day to see you."

The wizard returned the greeting as Scarlet turned from her spot, nudging to Bilbo as she whispered, "It's an elf!"

"That is quite obvious, Scarlet," he teased before she shoved him playfully.

A sound of a horn was heard, making the two hobbits turn to the direction it came from. Staring at the path, they saw a group of horse riders galloping down to the courtyard. The hobbits were then jerked back into a protective circle as the horses began to move around them like they were herded. She stumbled slightly before bumping into Fili who kept her in the circle when she tried to push out of it.

As the horses calmed and seemed to back away, one rider stepped forward as he called the wizard's name. Both smiled happily, like old friends having not seen each other for so long were reunited once again. They spoke Elvish, words that were unknown except Scarlet caught the word 'Orc' used, or it could be just some elvish that sounded like it.

The elf left his horse and quickly hugged the wizard before holding up what looked like a sword held by the Orcs that had chased them not to long ago. "Strange for Orcs to come so close to our borders," said the elf before walking behind Gandalf to give it to the one who had greeted them first. "Something… or someone has drawn them near."

"That may have been us," Gandalf confessed as he looked to Thorin, motioning subtlety for him to step forward. The elf didn't seem to need an introduction as he spoke, "Welcome Thorin, son of Thrain."

"I do not believe we have met," the dwarf spoke before the elf explained with a smile of his relation with the dwarf's late grandfather. As Thorin made a remark, there seemed to be a rise of tension in the air while Bilbo tried to look above the dwarves as did Scarlet. The elf spoke something in his native language, eyes matching against Thorin's.

Once finished, Scarlet was waiting for Gandalf to translate before Gloin suddenly spoke, "What did he say? Does he offer us insult?!"

"No, Master Gloin," Gandalf finally spoke. "He says that he offers you food."

Scarlet was about to sigh and step forward when the dwarves began to talk amongst themselves. She slapped her forehead, wondering why they are even discussing this matter.

**XxxxX**

As they neared towards the dining hall, Elrond had Scarlet be rushed off to be properly clean as a lady should be. The hobbit blinked in a very confused manner, having never seen the need to ever be cleaned up except for the necessity of it. As she was sitting on a chair, an elven woman by the name of Arwen was fixing her hair.

A thought crossed her mind as she requested, "Could… could you cut it short, please?"

The woman looked frightened at the request as she asked, "Why would you want to? I know that you may have been unable to properly care for it, but you have a beautiful head of hair. Why do you wish to shorten it?"

Looking at the mirror, she stared at her features as the long black hair of hers was straight and her red eyes stared back at her. She remembered when Bilbo wasn't around to help her as a child; she would have her long hair pulled every which way by the other hobbit children who called her the child of Mordor. She had nearly drowned her eyes with dark ink as if to color her eyes the right tint like the other hobbits. It did nothing to change the color but nearly destroyed her eyesight. This is why she could never be able to see in the dark.

She then came up with a more proper excuse. "It'll get in the way if it were to be caught on something when we continue on our journey."

Arwen sighed as she combed through the hobbit's hair. "This will be a shame to be sheared off so easily," she spoke in great displeasure before taking a hold of some golden scissors. She was about to cut the first of it all before stopping as she asked, "Are you sure about this?"

Scarlet bobbed her head down as to show she was truly ready to walk around in short hair. It was slow and rather agonizing wait before the last snip was made and the hobbit stared at her reflection. Her hair was now just below her pointy ears and she had a sort of bangs that swished to the right.

Arwen looked at her work as a smile was now on her face before stating, "I hate to admit it… but you look even more beautiful with this length. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the elves were to try and court you, my dear."

The hobbit blushed a bit at the statement, shaking her head as she answered, "I'd rather not… it'll just be a bit complicated for me to try and look at them. I'm not really good with men."

"Then how is it you are in the company of them?"

She blinked a bit, staring at her reflection. That was true. She has been with them for a few days. She had thought she was only being able to be there because Bilbo was there and Gandalf was able to convince Thorin to let her join. But how was she even tolerated? None seemed to voice anything besides the so-called rumors of bad luck that surrounded when a woman would be brought along for an adventure.

Scarlet then thought about the three dwarves she seemed to talk with the most.

Ori, the youngest of the group of dwarves, was the kindest of them all and someone she was able to speak to whenever she was able to without his elders to come by and babysit him. He was quite like a puppy who would trail after its first master with great happiness and curiosity.

Then there were those two infernal nitwits that seemed to be wherever she looked on every turn, Kili and Fili. They were quite the opposite of how their uncle is, given that the saying that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree a lacking stability. They were always eager to tease her or just plain annoy her to the brink of wanting the day to just end or the next day to never come.

But the teasing and such wasn't unwelcoming, she finally thought.

It wasn't like the one she got as a child. It made her feel… happy, not saddened and sick of herself.

"…I guess… it just feels a bit more comfortable with being with them. They are a rather rowdy folk," she laughed a bit. Arwen giggled as well as she replied, "They are behaving themselves at the moment. Now… may I have permission to dress you up this once?"

Scarlet was only able to nod, but mostly because she was going to ask on why she was requesting that. Arwen then disappeared for awhile, having walked into a wardrobe before returning to show a rather elegant white dress where the shoulders were shown just a bit. It would reach just past her pelvis but it was accompanied with thin leggings. The sleeves seemed to be rather long, probably overlapping her fingers easily. It was the size for a child, a rather fitting volume for a hobbit.

The hobbit stood up as she walked over, touching the silk fabric as she then said, "I cannot wear this. I'm only going to be here for one day. It's rather odd to be all gussied up for just one meal here."

"Oh, but you must. You must indulge yourself in such a beautiful state," Arwen begged as she carefully handed her the outfit.

Feeling that there was going to be no way to refuse her politely, Scarlet sighed as she then walked off to an area of the room so that she could change.

**XxxxX**

Elrond had been inspecting the blades that Gandalf and Thorin had acquired, obviously shocked to find something of his kin to be handled so casually by trolls. Lindir soon announced the arrival of the head elf's daughter as Elrond gave back the blades to their new owners and greeted Arwen lovingly.

Gandalf turned to see that she was followed, chuckling lightly as he spoke, "It seems white is a very good color to grace you, Miss Deepdelver."

Thorin turned to see what he had said, as did his kin from when he had looked, staring at the little hobbit who could easily been mistaken for a young elven child had it not been for her bare feet and obvious association with his company. The girl seemed to shrink even more in size from the stares as Bilbo then spoke, "Scarlet! Your hair!"

It wasn't a surprise that the short hair would shock them all as she had been walking around with her locks just rushing past her shoulders. Now her length was that even shorter than a male's mane which she absently touched and moving to join the dwarves. However, Arwen eagerly took the hobbit's hand and pulled her towards to join Elrond, Gandalf, and Thorin.

Having taken a seat beside the dwarf, the hobbit fidgeted before seeing the food placed before her. There was mostly bread and vegetables as she could imagine the dismay in the other dwarves at the table. Picking up the fork, she began to eat rather slowly but in big amounts. It has been long since she had eaten something that wasn't the usual grog and the vegetables were something she had preferred more than meat.

She began to shovel the lettuce and produce before eating the bread. It was only the silence of no conversations at the table that made her look up at Arwen who was quite surprised to see such a short woman eat so much. She gulped what was in her mouth, sitting up straight as she felt that she probably broke some etiquette law in Rivendell. But the elf laughed softly as she spoke, "I have rarely seen a lady eat so eagerly."

"Well… we hobbits mostly eat more than what I heard you elves do," Scarlet explained. "We have breakfast, second breakfast, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner, and then supper."

As if her words were heard by everyone, she heard a commotion behind them as the dwarves, mostly Bombur, Bofur, and Dwalin, began to ask Bilbo about this hobbit tradition of eating so much.

"But you have eaten so little during our journey," Gandalf pronounced, though eyeing at Thorin who glared at him in return. The female hobbit waved her hands a bit as she spoke, "I don't really eat as often as the average hobbit does since I rarely like to have a second breakfast or afternoon tea."

"What is your favorite food then?" Arwen asked eagerly but in a rather higher volume. Scarlet thought for a split second, coming up with a clear response as she said, "Apples. I love how sweet and juicy they are."

"I'm sure we have bushels of them. Would you like them to be brought out?" Elrond asked.

The hobbit quickly shook her head as she said, "I'm alright. I ate enough at this moment and might not eat until tomorrow. Thank you for the offer."

**XxxxX**

It was now night, and her stomach was grumbling gotten worse after the time marker for supper had passed. She held her stomach as her face buried into the large mattress that was offered for her.

Given how it was rather taboo for a woman to simply sleep in the same room as men, the elves let her take one of the guest rooms they had to offer for any travelers that were to come across Rivendell. She growled a bit to herself, blaming the infectious pride complex of dwarves for her to turn down even 3 pounds of bushels.

That wasn't all that kept her awake. The silence had nearly drove her mad, something she had been used to back in Woody End but now, it was just… odd.

A knock was heard, something that was done nearly an hour ago. S`he sighed as she muttered, "Go away, Bilbo… I'm fine."

The knocking continued before she nearly shouted, "Bilbo! I told you, I'm fine! You can go sleep now!"

"But I'm not Bilbo, Scarlet."

The timid voice…

Her eyes shot open before jumping from the bed, heading for the door as she opened it to see Ori. He was not alone as Kili and Fili were standing with him. "What are you three doing here?" she questioned.

Suddenly, three bushels of apples were held up into her face which she had stepped away from. "Wha… what's this?" she asked before taking the one in the middle first. Ori smiled as he answered, "Bilbo told us that you didn't have supper and we remembered you saying that you liked apples. We were able to sneak in and grab some for you."

"This is more than just some," she spoke nervously, counting about nine apples that were medium sized.

Kili and Fili were silent as Ori seemed to say that they could bring them along for the journey on. It was nerve-racking as she was so used to them being rowdy and loud and just forward. Ever since they have arrived to Rivendell, they were rather silent around her. She remembered walking by the room where they were to stay for the night and were quite noisy and rambunctious after Bombur was given just a small sausage and his weight broke the table he sat on.

Needless to say, besides hunger that kept her awake, it was the fact that it was too quiet tonight for her.

"What's with that saddened look?" she heard Kili ask, seeing his face seemed to be annoyed by her expression. "We nearly got caught getting these from the elves' storage room. You should share some gratitude with us."

There it was, the smirk that she always saw on the brothers' mouths before she rolled her eyes at them. She then smiled at Ori, giving her thanks before looking at the two. "And maybe I'll make some apple pie, should I be able to come home after this whole adventure to Erabor."

It was then that the expressions changed in Kili and Fili as they both asked, "You are still wishing to accompany with us?"

"Of course!" Scarlet nearly shouted. "Why do you believe that I wish to back out now, besides for obvious reasons like the troll and the Orcs?"

"Just… you seemed rather content earlier in the company of the elves," Fili spoke before Kili added. "And you were speaking of such affection towards them."

"It's because of the stories I was told as a child that I would be so awed by the presence and the fact that no hobbit besides me and Bilbo would ever see Rivendell with our own eyes. I highly doubt that our tales would even be listened to by anyone but the Tooks. But it will tales that I hold closely because I know that I did something worthwhile… helping someone get back what was lost to them."

There was a long silence between the four of them before the brothers laughed loudly at her words. Her face soon reddened in anger and embarrassment as she shouted, "You irksome dwarves! I bid you all good night!"

With the slam of the door, she plopped back on the bed with the basket of apples on her lap. It was big as she stared at the fruits in it before taking one and proceeding to eat them with great fury. Although her stomach was being filled and her feelings of solitude were gone, the sense of antagonism would be the bane that would form her insomnia of the night.

But she didn't stop the smile that appeared on her face, happy that she could at least hear their voices like she heard the past few nights.

* * *

_**So here's another update! Getting through the story slowly and then will mostly lean to the book's events.**_

_**Thanks for reading! I will be updating probably on Friday. It's finals week at my community college and I just hope I pass.**_


	8. A New View

**_A/N: I had edited the past chapters. Mostly on typos hopefully and some added information that can be mixed together more clearly. Thank you for reading this small tidbit. Carry on._**

* * *

There was a subtle but loud knocking heard on her door. Her eyes opened, she saw that the sun had yet not risen from the ocean horizon. She believed it was for someone else as she closed her eyes to go back into the realm of dreams, only to be pulled back out to reality when the knocking was just a tad louder.

Whoever it was that was knocking is trying their best not to wake the rest of the Rivendell in slumber. Kicking off the sheets as she was adorned with her wear that she had donned throughout the journey, she opened the door to see Bofur at the door. "Hurry on, lass. We are leaving," he whispered as he quickly entered to gather her pack.

"Wait? Leaving? Why so early? It isn't even daylight," she spoke at the same pitch as him, unsure why they were whispering besides the courtesy of those who needed their eyes shut for a few more hours.

"Gandalf had told Thorin that we must make haste and leave Rivendell. Seems that the elves are not approval of our quest," Bofur explained rather extensively. She nodded as she gathered what was hers in the room, placing them in her pack before stuffing what apples she didn't into the bag as well.

"Where are you going?" said a feminine voice.

Bofur turned quickly, axe out but lowered it when Scarlet placed her hand over his. Arwen stood in the door way, dressed in her sleeping gown while staring at the two curiously. The hobbit walked over to the elf as she said, "I… we're leaving."

Thankfully, she didn't have to come up with a lie or tell her the reason of such an early departure as Arwen walked over to the wardrobe. Opening it, she seemed to search inside before taking out a small box. Curious, the hobbit walked over as the elf opened it, revealing a rather slim blade that was attached to 9 thin metals that were chained together. Actually, there were two.

"My gift for you, dear Scarlet," Arwen spoke, handing it to her. "Let it flow swiftly as you say you do among the trees."

Looking at her new small addition, the hobbit looked up at the elf with a bright smile. "I thank you for this gift, Arwen."

She winded up the chain whip, about to slip it into her back when she saw Arwen holding out a belt and a small vial. The hobbit could tell that this was further delaying her leave but she took them without question before the elf spoke, "This will help you hold on to it much better, in case you ever become separated from your items. Only you can be the one to remove it. The vial… you mustn't open it."

"What's inside?" Scarlet asked as she stared at the concoction.

"A healing salve that will mend even the most fatal of wounds, but once opened, it has to be used within seconds or it will be nothing more than just water."

Surprised that the elf would give something so powerful to her, the hobbit had no time to ask for the reason. She had to leave now as Bofur whispered to her to hurry up. Giving a quick embrace to the elf, Scarlet whispered, "I'll try to come and visit some time after this is over. I wish to see more of Rivendell."

"And you shall, for I will be your guide, _onoone_," the elf spoke in return.

**XxxxX**

The rest of the silent departure went on as a blur before she was now on the cliff side path that led away from Rivendell and into the Wilds. She was a bit surprised to see that the load was a bit bigger than before, mostly towards Kili and Fili before she noticed some sort of instrument was sticking out from the pack.

She could see the great depressed look on Bilbo's face as she trailed back a bit with him and muttered, "Don't be so down, Bilbo. We'll see it again."

Her fellow hobbit nodded his head as the assigned burglar continued on with their trek through the open fields. There was no stop for food this time, much to the dismay of the hobbits but neither opened their mouths to whine about it.

As they walked across the cliff side of dried fields, Scarlet stepped carrying on the path that the others were walking on, stumbling once in a while as the dirt was getting softened by the ones before her. She slipped just slightly, nearly falling but regained her footing before anyone could help her.

It wasn't long until they soon reached a more secluded area where they could take a rest for the night, the sun setting once again in the west. Settling her pack with Bilbo, her hand rested on the chain weapon she had received which gave her a rather eagerness to try it out.

"Is there somewhere a bit open I can go to?" she asked the others as Balin answered, "You can do your little rope fun just a bit ways, dearie."

"Take someone with you or don't go at all," Thorin stated, staring at her with a glare. She did her best to not provoke this man's anger at him, wanting to be childish and stick her tongue at him before she looked to Bofur and Bifur. The hat-wearing dwarf nodded with a smile, pulling his cousin along who seemed a bit absent minded.

Her eyes then focused on the small axe that was embedded into his head, making her wonder on how she had not caught that at all. Opening her mouth to ask, she then bit her tongue to keep from doing so. It was not hers point out such a thing and she needed to focus on this new weapon she had received.

Once they were at a distance, Bofur sat down as he began smoking his pipe and shouted, "Give us a show, Scarlet!"

Rolling her eyes, she unraveled the chain. It wasn't as long as her rope dart, but its weight was a bit greater. She swung it around a bit, the wind cutting through it much louder before she caught just a link away from the blade.

The slight pain in her hand from the squeeze of two links pinching her skin already told her that this was going to be harder than playing around with a string and dart.

"You alright?" Bofur asked as he moved to stand up, but Scarlet nodded before she took a stance. As she twirled it around, the ribbon made a sound like a flag would during a harsh wind storm.

Picking up speed, she began to move it to her other hand as quickly as possible.

_Just keep moving. Don't stop moving…_

That's what she had been repeating in her head every time she had done this, since she could remember. It was an old chant that would play in her head but not in her own voice.

It was the only thing of her father that she could remember.

**XxxxX**

The flapping sound caught Thorin's attention as he looked over to see a small streak of red moving around the feminine hobbit. He watched as the girl then started to move it around her, though she saw her stop as she seemed to walk in a circle a bit with a pained look.

It became a sort of pattern though each attempt was longer than the last.

However, the fifth attempt caused her to exclaim just a bit as she held her hand and dropped the chain whip. He saw Bofur stand and usher to her while examining her hand. Words were exchanged before she was ushered reluctantly to the camp. Looking to Fili who was sharpening his second blade, he tapped his shoulder before saying, "Tend to her wounds. She probably has more bruises than she is letting on."

The blond dwarf looked up, seeing what his uncle was saying before getting up and heading over to them.

**XxxxX**

She frowned a bit, seeing Bofur and Kili fretting over her as if the cut on her hand was much worse than it looked. It sting and hurt to move it but the cut was not deep and it would heal in a few days. Nonetheless, her words of her own feeling of self-satisfaction with her help did not save her from the stinging of a healing potion that was poured on her hand.

Staring at the bandage that was tied on the back of her hand, she sighed and stared at the fire pit. Looking over to Bofur, she noticed he was holding his flute, testing to see that it was still working.

A thought came to her head as she asked, "Bofur… may I have a request of a song?"

"Sure, Scarlet. Care to tell me how it goes?"

"There are no words to it… it is just mostly a tune that I remember," she confessed.

Bofur settled his flute down, waiting patiently for her to hum the tune. Clearing her throat, she closed her eyes as if the notes of the song would come to her.

Bilbo heard Scarlet humming, pausing on his cooking as he watched her softly vocalize the song that made him remember home so easily. Such a calming tune, it was. Simple too.

It lasted for a minute before she opened her eyes as Bofur clapped his hands together. "Such a superb song! Tell me, who was the one to compose such a melody?"

"It's… just something I heard a lot as a child," she said before Bofur nodded and said while raising his flute up to his mouth, "I hope I do justice for it."

Soon, the song played, a whistling played first.

_**AN: If you wish to know what song it is, it's "Concerning Hobbits". **_

She watched Bofur play before the sound of a violin played behind her. Looking back, she saw Fili playing on the instrument. Her eyes was a bit shocked as Kili joined in as well, strumming a small guitar. The three played the song that she had only hummed so plain and began playing it like it was some masterpiece.

The moment passed as the song ended, making Scarlet clap happily and smiled at the three. Bofur nodded and laughed while Kili and Fili were smiling in return. She looked over to the brooding dwarf, noticing that he too was listening to the song. For a second, she had noticed a softened look in his eyes but it disappeared quickly.

She had noticed the direction she was staring mostly, looking over to see that Bilbo was walking and sitting beside her. Was he looking at Bilbo to scrutinize him? But then, it wouldn't be coinciding with the way he stared at him.

"I had thought that tune was lost. I remember hearing it a lot as a child," he spoke to her.

"Thought it would be good to have a piece of home, given that you left your handkerchief at Bag End," she joked, the two laughing together. Her eyes then turned to their destination. Balin had said that there was a path in the mountains that they could take. She just hoped that nothing would go badly during the trek through the valley of the mountains.

A thought came to her mind as she then asked, "Balin… I… I wish to hear the tale of how Erebor was taken… if that's alright."

Everyone seemed to turn to her, some of the olders a bit shocked while the younger ones seemed to wait for Balin's answer. Seeing the stares and the suddenly silence, Scarlet opened her mouth to take back the request but the old dwarf sat down with them as he began.

"Sixty years ago… it's hard to believe that it's been that long since I have last seen it. Erebor was the great kingdom of the Lonely Mountain, a solitary peak beyond the forest of Mirkwood. Everything in it was carved in rock and stone, and it was a glorious sight.

"The great king, Thror, along with his son and grandson," he spoke, gesturing on the last part towards Thorin. "They were fair rulers of our land, and even equal to those of the humans of Dale and the elves that lived in the forest. All was peaceful… until _he_ came…"

"Smaug…" she heard Fili and Kili speak lowly. Balin nodded his head, confirming the name.

"He came flying in like a burning hurricane, destroying the human town before attacking Erebor. Breaking through the doors that could hold even against the mightiest of armies, he took many lives before taking his intended target… our gold."

Scarlet tilted her head as she asked, "Is that why you are going to Erebor? To take back your gold?"

"Aye, lass," Balin answered.

There was a long pause before she asked, "Wait… the elves? Did you not ask for their help?"

"There was no help given by those traitorous fools."

She turned to see Thorin had joined their circle, staring down at her with a piercing gaze before stating, "They had come with an army nearly matching our own, but do you know what they did? They simply stood there and watched."

"But did you not tell us that one of the elves did help?" Ori asked. Scarlet was at least surprised by this suggestion as she waited for Thorin to answer. The dwarf just scowled at it before turning to walk away, probably to brood or sleep on his own once again. Thankfully, Balin answered for him, "Yes… there was one elf that did stay behind to assist us on leaving Erebor, against to Thandruil's orders."

"He ran from his ranks, much to the clear disagreement in Thandruil's eyes as he ran to help get the rest of our kin from the mountain. He looked rather young, as do all elves, but there was still the look in his eye that he wanted to help all that he could."

"A little bit more green than his woods, the way he had ran into the fray," Dwalin inputted. "But a great shooter."

"Once we were safe, he was taken away by his kin," Balin finished. "We did not see him again."

"Goes to show how the elves would treat their own kind," Gloin spoke, smoking from his pipe. "The one elf that helped us had been condemned. It was clear in their eyes what they were to do to him."

It was at that moment that she seemed to understand why the dwarves seemed to hold so much hatred towards the elves of Mirkwood.

* * *

_**Once again, thank you for reading this fan fic. I hope I'm doing good. If there's anything I should fix on, please let me know through private messages or reviews. If not, then thanks for the viewing.**_

_**Hopefully I'll be updating after the weekend.**_

_**Edit: Thank you Shadow fang the black wolf for giving me the right now. I thought it was Lothlorien but it is indeed Mirkwood.**_


	9. Thunder Battle Survival

One thing is certain in life: a person should not assume anything until they were able to have everything laid out before them. Then, and only then, should you start thinking out plans and then you would be prepared for the unexpected.

Too bad no one had told Scarlet of such a philosophy before she went on this journey, or at least entered into the mountain pass of the Misty Mountains.

She shouldn't have assumed it was going to be a simple walk. It was never just a simple walk like a path through Woody End and walking to Hobbiton. She should have seen how the grey clouds above in the morning were a sign that doom loomed to those who would dare take this path.

The rain pelted upon them hard. She and Bilbo were not fully dressed for such a weather change like this, a great danger as if they were not in some place dry soon, they could come down with a sort of sickness and be a further burden to the company. Sure, there had messed with such deluge a few days ago, but at this amount while climbing on a path that was barely there on the face of the mountain was even considered not such a safe journey.

Nonetheless, they were already on the mountain the whole day and night had already fallen to make it even much harder for the company of Thorin Oakenshield to trek safely against the mountain. The path was barely visible as only the lightning in the sky would brighten the way, followed by the thunder that sounded like millions of drums pounding into her ears.

She heard panic behind her as she looked back, seeing Dwalin and Bofur just able to keep Bilbo from slipping off the edge. She sighed in relief, barely hearing the obvious order to find shelter by Thorin as the rain came down and thunder echoed in the surroundings. She looked up, the rain now pelting her face as she looked down.

It was clearly a big mistake.

All she could see was darkness, unsure how far up they were but with the way they reacted when Bilbo nearly fell over… Why did they have to pass through the Misty Mountains? It would make more sense to just go around them.

"**LOOK OUT!**"

Hearing Dwalin shout, she looked back up as the lightening coated behind a rather large boulder flying across the sky and smashing into the cliff above them. She could hear the rocks falling below before she was yanked to be pressed against the rock face. She held on to the person, her eyes opened again as the thunder was heard, echoing through the valley again.

"This is no thunder storm," Balin spoke with revelation. "It's a thunder battle! Look!"

The lightning kept on coming, lighting the dark sky enough to have her see what looked like a large monster that was shaped like a man. The rain blinded her a bit, but the fear grew in her eyes as the creature pulled a piece of mountain.

"The legends are true… **Giants!** _**Stone Giants!**_" Bofur spoke, but she was too focused on trying to keep to the mountain, head turned away just as she saw the monster throw the boulder high above them. The ground shook, feeling it ready to crumble beneath her bare feet as the person kept her pinned to the wall for obvious safety.

"Kili! Grab my hand!"

Her eyes shot open again, not realizing she had closed them. That voice… it was Fili's… but…

That meant Kili was the one who was keeping her to the edge. But where was his brother?

Turning her head to the direction of him, she saw that he was moving away without actually moving. "Fili!" she shouted to him, moving to reach out to him but Kili stopped her, holding her close as the two watched him disappear into the darkness. The mountainside they were on was in fact one of the stone giants who had awoken in the thunder storm, ready to do battle against the others. Clinging to the creature's legs, the dwarves tried to not be thrown off. Scarlet winced, the rain water making the bandage on her hand slip off as the water started to sting her cut.

After what felt like long hours of being swung about and clinging to the cliff, the moved stone collided with something before she felt herself pulled away from the cliff and running down the rest of the path. Jumping the gap with Kili, they were now safe on stable ground. A sigh of relief overflowed her before it was taken away when something flew across their way.

Looking up, she barely caught the fearful eyes of Bilbo before what moving stone they were crossed them.

"Bilbo!" she shouted, reaching out to him the second he was nearly out of her view.

"Scarlet, wait!" Kili called to her, pulling her back close so she wouldn't fall to the near deep darkness. She continued to look, searching through the dark before the earth shook again from something colliding with something nearby.

"NO! NO!"

"That was Thorin," she deducted to herself, looking over to the voice's direction. The lightning lit up the area once again, making her see the large leg of the stone giant falling away. The group ahead of them rushed forward as Thorin shouted Fili's name. Following them, she thought the worse had happened.

What if they fell off the side and were plummeting to their deaths?

What if they were squashed against the cliff side and their gooey parts were all over it now?

The list could be endless, but her imagination only let her think of those two disastrous things that soon disappeared when they saw them all on the ground of the cliff side, safe and in one piece… or several one pieces. Relief should have overcome her, but it didn't.

She counted and there was one missing.

"Bilbo?" she silently called before repeating his name even louder. There was no sign of the hobbit. Sure they were known to be able to remain unseen if they wish, but this was not those times that one should consider going stealthy to others.

A grunt that could be heard above the thunder and rain caught her attention before she looked down back to the endless abyss of darkness. Eyes filled great fear and self-survival stared up at her before her own reciprocated that fear. Bilbo was barely clinging to the edge of the mountain pass, his fingers digging into the rock. But such a grip could only hold for so long, the knuckles turning white the strength in them would slip any second.

And it did.

"Bilbo!" she shouted much louder as she reached down, seeing him slip much downward. "Grab my hand!"

Her shouting caught the attention of the dwarves, seeing her reaching desperately to the burglar.

Bofur and Ori were now also reaching out to the burglar, calling to him the same way she did. Their hands unable to reach him before her hand touched her chain whip. She stood up, ready to unwind her weapon before she saw Thorin jump down, holding the edge of the cliff before reaching down and easily picking up Bilbo and throwing him back to the safe level.

But he was now the one in danger of falling from the edge. Dwalin quickly grabbed to his king's hand, struggling to pull him up. Finally having unwound her whip, she quickly reached down and held the hilt end to him. Thorin didn't waste time as he quickly grabbed it. She didn't anticipate the weight but was able to dig her bare feet into the rock, pulling him up with Dwalin.

Everyone was safe as she finally let out a sigh of it, resting against the rock face before she stared over at Bilbo who looked back at her. She winced, looking down at her hand as the wound was now bleeding again, obvious to the wetness of the rain and the strenuous activity she had just done.

"I thought we lost our burglar," Dwalin proclaimed as Scarlet caught a sight of astonishment by Bilbo. This has been the first time that anyone seemed to consider him as like their burglar. However, that small look of equality was smashed as Thorin said, "He's been lost… ever since he left home. He should never have come."

"Wait a second," she began to protest before Bofur stood up and held her shoulder, shaking his head. After helping Bilbo up, everyone followed Thorin into the cave.

It didn't stop Scarlet to look back at her fellow hobbit, seeing the distraught look in his eyes and the great self-doubt that grew in him.

* * *

_**This should have been updated last night but I got a little frustrated and anger due to me losing my USB that held this chapter. Thankfully, I didn't close the word program while typing it and saved it on my computer.**_

_**Once again, thanks for reading. The next one will possibly be short, depending on whether I decided to combine the two events together or not. It'll probably be up by the end of the week. I do have to get sleep for my placement test tomorrow. **_

_**Thanks again!**_


	10. Dreamers

The lack of fire and the abundance of wet clothes did not do well for one who tried to stay warm. Thankfully, Thorin allowed at least a small one to be present but for only a short time.

Her bandages were wet, tossing them aside as her wound was bleeding again. Searching through her pack, she saw that only her extra shirt had survived from being drenched. Giving a slight quiet prayer of appeasement, she ripped it apart and tied what strands were long enough to wrap around her hand.

A gloved hand covered hers before taking over on tending her wound. She didn't have to look up to see that Fili was helping her, as he seemed to have done more than his brother did sometimes. "Thanks," she let out a shivered sigh, the cold of her wet clothes becoming a rather nuisance to her. Once the wound was covered carefully, she cradled her hand to herself before looking over at Bilbo.

He had been much more silent since they had entered into the cave and his eyes were in such concentration, just like when he was searching for weeds in his garden. But he wasn't pulling weeds; he was pulling at a broken piece of the walking stick. Getting up, she walked over and sat beside him, her clothes made a slight embarrassing splosh sound which Kili and Fili chuckled at it. Giving them a small glare, she looked back to Bilbo as she told him, "Don't let what Thorin said get to you, Bilbo."

Looking at his friend, Bilbo gave a small smile to her and nodded. However, she knew that he wasn't accepting that thought. She could clearly see the self-doubt growing and growing inside of him.

Hoping to give a sort of encouragement, she whispered, "Do you remember when we were little? How you would show off on taking other's things without them knowing." Seeing that it caught his attention, Scarlet also noticed that some of the dwarves seemed to quiet down and listen in.

Bilbo gave a small sigh as he reminded her, "You're the one who got me into trouble those times. You always wanted to prove yourself by saying that I couldn't get it."

"And yet you did," she answered. "You got Old Took's pipe while he was walking through the market. You snatched some cabbages from the fields just as the dogs were about to pass by and nearly gave us away. You even took a little… _something_ rather small from Lobelia."

That caused Bilbo to flush and tried to shush her up with his hands over her mouth while she gave a small laugh. The dwarves that did listen in, namely Bofur, Balin, and Nori, chuckled at the last one as it was a rather typical thing for young males although questionable. Looking at the hobbit with a sincere look, she told him, "You still have that in you, Bilbo. No matter who says otherwise, whether it was to just show off to the others or to get something for us to eat for the evening, you were the best one to get it."

Patting his shoulder and gripping it firmly to show her support, she then stood up before shivering from the cold.

Damn Thorin for his orders of not starting a fire. All of them will be sick by the end of this night. Hopefully, Gandalf will be waiting at the end of the mountain pass for them and with some warm brew.

Oh the thought of it sent chills down her spine for she missed her small hovel in Woody End and the trees that held the elves who ventured through it to leave Middle Earth. And now… she was out here, in the cold mountains with no good food, no warm hearth, and none of the comforts of home.

Sighing, she curled into herself as she sat against a rock face, trying to keep herself warm. Her sheets were safely dry from the rain but she dare not to drench them with her being.

Suddenly, she felt two people sit beside her as she looked at both Kili and Fili, seeing them taking their place at her side. She was about to question their reasoning to be taking this spot before Kili spoke first, "The rest of the cave has already been taken."

"That and we are going to be next on watch after Bofur," Fili added.

She was too tired to deny them to just a simple place to lay before their turn and the fact that they seemed to be warm and less wet than she was had also made her stay silent. Using her pack as a sort of pillow, she rested her head on it while laying down and staring up at the rock ceiling. She turned to lay on her side, facing the entrance and Kili's leg as she tried to get some sleep.

As she shivered, she felt someone place rather warm clothing over her. Eyes closed, her fingers pulled the fabric over her shoulder and felt a slight fur to it. She wanted to open her eyes and to look back at Fili to give at least a thank you, but the events of the day had finally pulled her away from the world of waking and into the realm of dreams…

…and nightmares.

**XxxxX**

"_Mama!"_

_Her eyes stared at a small home, one that was in the woods just like her own but not the same structure. It was not in a hill but more like a small cabin, a home usually made similar to the one she had seen the night they had encountered those gruesome and anti-hygienic trolls. Scarlet was mostly confused as she stood still, unsure if she should step closer. _

_A movement passed by her, a hobbit child ran passed her._

_A child with black straight hair…_

_Frowning, she watched the girl run to it as a female hobbit stepped out. She couldn't see her face as she was wearing those garden hats like she had seen many of the women in Hobbiton wear to avoid the sun. "Scarlet! There's my lovely child," the woman called as she placed her basket down, picking up the child who squealed and giggled as she was raised up._

"_This… can't be," Scarlet told herself quietly, shaking her head and frowning. This can't be. This dream had stopped coming to her nearly five years after she was able to talk with others, after her parents were dead. "Wake up, you fool," she told herself._

_She knew that any moment, she will see the burning red coming around the home. It was the first thing she remembered and the dream had repeated the same thing all the time. The two would go in and the place will come ablaze and she will wake up._

_The two did go in, that part of the dream was no different. However, the flames did not rise soon after or at all as she waited and waited. Nothing happened before her curiosity and impatience took hold and forced her to head for the door and slip inside to see. A small part of her had a flit of hope. Maybe this was just going to be a ncie dream, a memory of something great that she will finally hold dear to her of a things that she had long forgotten._

_Her hand pressed against the knob of the door, feeling it move open as pieces of the door frame fell back where the lock would be. It was forced open, like someone had kicked it back. But… that couldn't be right, she thought to herself. They simply entered the door just like anyone would and yet, there was this one door that looked like it was forced open._

_Pressing it back, it slowly opened before she noticed something sinister in the cabin._

_On the floor, there were three shadows overlooking the woman who was her mother. They surrounded her, figures and faces obscured as she saw the great fear in her mother's eyes. They were blue, just like any hobbits while her hair was black like hers. She could finally see her mother's face, and it was filled with fear at the creatures around her. She could barely hear the words spilling from the mouth, tears falling from her eyes as she begged them to stop whatever they were doing to her._

_Scarlet's eyes lifted as she saw small red eyes peaking through one of the cupboards, seeing them watching the sight. _

"_Scarlet…"_

_A male voice told her before she felt her vision disappear._

"_Scarlet!"_

_The voice became urgent as she soon smelled smoke and felt the heat of flames._

"_Scarlet, where are you?!"_

**XxxxX**

Her eyes shot open, barely seeing through the darkness of the cave. She had to remember that through her dream haze, that she wasn't in a burning cabin or a scared little hobbit child that was hiding.

The haze of imaginings was quickly lifted when she felt a warm air breeze hit her, which was odd as the mountains were always cold no matter what season it was. That is what she had heard through tales from travelers. That and it shouldn't have smelled a slight foul to it, like one would after waking from a night sleep.

She made to move but felt herself kept in place by something bound around her waist. Her eyes blinked erratically, trying to beckon the vision to see through the night that was absent to her eyes.

"_No, you don't! Because you haven't got a home, none of you do!_"

Attempting to reach out and find out who kept her in such a compromising position, she paused when she heard a familiar voice speak in such a hush tone. It was sounded behind her, near the entrance of the cave.

"_I'm sorry,_" Bilbo's voice hesitated, obviously sounding a bit guilty for what he said to whoever he had referred that comment to.

"_No… it's alright,_" she heard someone say. It was Bofur, making her frown a bit more as to what was going on. "_You're right… we don't belong anywhere…_"

The dwarf sounded so sad at admitting that. Now she figured what they were talking about. They were speaking about the quest or possibly Bilbo's lack of self-confidence. Feeling the wave of weary come over her, she was about to go back to sleep or try to when she heard Bofur say, "_I wish you all the luck in the world, Bilbo. Good luck on your journey home._"

Journey home?!

"Bilbo," she began to call out to her friend, pushing herself up on the ground to turn to the direction where the conversation was. That arm around her waist loosened, hearing a grumble that seemed to tell her to go back to sleep. Before she could figure out the voice, she felt something strange beneath her hand.

Her thumb grazed over the once solid ground before feeling a sort of crack in it, a crack that began to grow. A silence then overcame the cave, halting any conversations as the sound of sands falling could be heard.

"Wake up!" Thorin shouted, ordering his party to get up on their feet.

It was too late.

Soon, the ground opened to them as a light finally shined through the cave, basking them in deep red.

For that moment, Scarlet felt she had fallen into a monstrous hell… and she wouldn't be far from her assumption if she only knew…

* * *

_**I had promised to update this story last week and I'm sorry I didn't keep it.**_

_**I will be slower on updates as I have started my spring semester in college and am focusing a bit more on that at the current moment. Hopefully, I can get the next chapter up in two weeks time. Laters and until the next update...**_


	11. Down in Goblin Town

Everything was spinning and turning as she felt her body sliding down the smooth rock that held nothing for grasping hands. Nails dug into what turned out to be wet dirt but still desperately tried to grab anything. All was for naught as they continued to slide down the seemingly endless hole.

Her eyes looked around at the speeding scenery around them, cackling and whooping of monstrous noises by creatures she had never seen before. Then again, has she seen anything that looked so hideous like the Orcs? These pale creatures seemed to claw at them, nearly getting her a few times but luckily, their arms didn't not reach far enough and she was going too fast for them to time their swings right.

"**Scarlet**!"

Her eyes turned, looking at Bilbo who slid nearly past her before she grabbed his hand or attempted to. Fingers slashed against skin before finally gripping one another. They soon all reached the end of the slide, landing on top of the pile of dwarves that arrived before them. Lying on top of Bilbo, she lifted her head up as she was about to try and see where they were.

The white creatures were scrambling towards them, claws out. Bilbo instinctively pushed Scarlet off and away from the goblins reach. Hands flailing, she was brought towards Kili and Fili who pulled her to be behind them. However, there was no safe place as she looked back, the flames lit around the large cavern as the endless depths of the place could be seen along with more of those white creatures.

"Thorin!" Fili cried as he tried to reach to his uncle from being grabbed. Kili followed suit as the two brothers clawed after to the leader of the company but failed as the white creatures soon pulled him away. They did not stop there as more goblins appeared, grabbing each of them one by one and pushing them away from the place they landed.

Scarlet too was soon grabbed as she was pulled away from Fili and Kili, both trying to pull her back to safety but they were pulled also. She pushed away the grabbing hands, some clawing on to her skin. Panicking, she glanced around for help but everyone of the company was now in the hands of these foul creatures.

The female hobbit was suddenly yanked downward, making her yelp before her mouth was covered to silence her. She briefly struggled before feeling the hand was not rough like the creatures nor did it bare sharp claws that would dig into her cheeks. Bilbo shushed her again as they waited for the monsters to leave them behind. Looking at the dwarves, she saw that Nori glanced back, staring at them before slightly calming down and looking ahead.

Soon, the monsters were far away and dragging their friends to who knows what, leaving the two hobbits alone. Slowly standing up, Bilbo helped Scarlet to stand before taking out his blade. The steal glowed blue just as Gandalf had explained. These creatures weren't Orcs, but goblins. Either way, Scarlet froze a bit in fear before she heard something else coming. It was from where they had fallen through as a familiar pack fell down.

Sighing in relief, she went over to it and found her chain whip inside. Holstering beneath her clothing, she stood with Bilbo as he said, "Stay close… we have to find them and rescue them."

As they walked across the bridge, she asked, "And just how do you think we can do that? Did you not see how many goblins there were, Bilbo? It was like a whole field of them."

The hobbit obviously had no answer to his kin, but the two knew that they had to do something. Bilbo took lead as she tapped around her pockets before pulling her chain whip and rope dart out. Deciding to go with the lighter of the two, she held the rope in her hands and moved to catch up with Bilbo.

A loud screech soon got their guards up when one of the goblins landed from above, teeth snarling at them as Scarlet nearly screamed at the sight. Bilbo swung his sword, trying to scare away the creature or to at least swish it from their sights. However, the goblin charged and swung his own cleaver at Bilbo's sword.

Scarlet tried to jump in and help but with every moment she tried to jump in, Bilbo would get in the way. She could only watch as soon Bilbo had a small moment where he had gained the upper hand, only to have the goblin cling to his back and bite on his shoulder. As he tried to pull him off, Bilbo succeeded by leaning back as the grip from the goblin loosened.

However, he was leaning off the bridge. Hands reached out to the nearest thing he could grab which was nothing as Scarlet ran to grab her friend's hand.

"Bilbo!" she called to him, nails barely grazing the reaching skin of the hand before she saw her friend fall into the dark abyss.

Her eyes searched, looking and trying so hard to see through the darkness.

Nothing…

"Bilbo!" she called again, her voice echoing as to show that she was indeed alone in the caverns of this place. Fear overtook her again, feeling of solitude in the cave was something she didn't not anticipate to be seeing. Although there were torches, the shadows still made her fear just a step forward. Climbing down would be disastrous for her as rocks were not her forte.

She finally gave out a long shaky breath, feeling her lungs cease the burning sensation of suffocation as she looked over to where the dwarves were taken. Hopefully, Bilbo had landed somewhere soft below and was alive for she could not wait for him to climb up.

Holstering her rope dart away again, she walked towards one of the railings and shook the wood. Despite how the goblins had looked and the way the wood work was done, the bridges and ropes were strong enough to carry even the heaviest hobbit she had seen. Hopefully, she could reach them in time and probably do something within her abilities that she had.

Which were few, even for a hobbit.

Stepping on to the beams, she ran across them and jumped from wood to wood while grabbing ropes to swing. It didn't take long before she finally caught up with the goblins who were leading the dwarves across wooden bridges and caverns. Following carefully as to remain unseen, she would pause once in a while with her trailing whenever she felt that one of the goblins would look back. She only continued when the sounds of them were far away enough as she always saw the last goblin disappearing from her view.

However, the sounds of the creatures began to grow even as they disappeared from her view. She dreaded what sight she would come to see when this little game of chase will be done.

She took a step forward before hearing a screech behind her. Quickly turning, all she saw was a disgusting face with teeth snarling at her as she emitted a scream.

**XxxxX**

They were weaponless now as the goblins toss their arms into a pile before them. One had even taken away Oin's hearing aid and smashed it. Thorin moved to confront the goblins but Dwalin placed an arm to stop him from doing anything rash. Rather odd of him to do such a thing but it would be good to have clear minds at the moment.

"What are you doing in these parts?!" the Goblin King demanded of them, holding a scepter of what looked like the head of a bull. His large form was clearly showing of his authority in which none of the dwarves would bother to recognize. All remained silent as the Goblin King demanded once again, "**Speak!**"

None of them did. All they had really done was glare and stare at the monster that led these abominations of Goblin Town. Thorin watched as the creature pursed his lips, mad that such foreigners would not show fear or courtesy to him as the large goblin shouted, "Very well! If they will not talk, we'll make them squawk!"

The creature's kin roared in approval as he demanded items of obvious torture to be brought. Thorin glared, trying to think of a way to bring his fellows and himself to safety until the Goblin King said, "Start with the youngest!" He could see Dori and Nori pull their young brother Ori in a protective huddle.

"Wait!" Thorin shouted amongst the noises, his voice booming and gathering everyone's attention. He saw his nephews urging him to be silent, to not step into the spotlight but it was already done as he pushed past them gently and into the front. He saw the Goblin King stare at him for a split second until the look of recognition flitted onto the disgusting face.

"Well, _well_, _**well**_! Look who it is," he gestured to the dwarf. "Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror! King… Under the Mountain."

However, those titles were spoken in such sarcastic remarks, mocking praises of the dwarf. He even bowed to put more mocking ego to him before the Goblin King stated, "Oh! But I'm forgetting you don't have a mountain… nor a king… which makes you _nobody_, really."

A great anger filled Thorin, handing twitching as his eyes briefly glanced to the Orcist. Oh how he wanted to cut off the large goblin's head off and cease the babbling from the boiled-covered face. The dwarf then noticed that the Goblin King was staring at him interestingly before he heard him state, "I know someone… who will pay a pretty price for your head. Just a head… nothing attached."

This was the first time he heard of such a thing. Who would dare to put a bounty on him?

Then one name echoed through his mind. A name he had thought to never think of besides the recollection or telling of the battle at Moria all those years ago. The one who took his grandfather away from him.

"I believe you know who I speak of," the Goblin King resumed his prattling. "An old enemy of yours…"

Thorin's eyes glared, a burning rage filled him that was the same when he saw his grandfather's head held up high and then tossed down like a heap of refuse. The name he did not wish to utter on his lips unless it was to speak of the dead. "Azog the Deflier was destroyed," he stated boldly. "He was slain in battle long ago!"

"So you think his defiling days are done, do you?" the Goblin King leaned forward, laughing at how the dwarf would believe that such a hated enemy would be killed so easily. He then walked away, talking to a small goblin that sat in a cup meant for lanterns. As he ushered orders to call for Azog, a commotion was heard behind him.

He turned to order his men to be still when Thorin saw that it was not among his men where the clamor was. It was far off and coming closer. He saw the goblins carrying someone, dragging the form past the group of dwarves before he saw Kili's face filled with shock. The goblin tossed the body to be beside him. He recognized the short black hair and the bare small feet.

It was Miss Deepdelver, and she looked dead.

* * *

_**Sorry for yet another short chapter and also a rather dark cliffhanger. I wanted to meet my quota as I promised. Also, kind of wanted to end it right here before writer's block hit me.**_

_**I'll be posting the next one in either one to two weeks, depending on what happens between that time. Thanks for reading and ta~!**_


	12. Escape from Peril

His eyes stared around the dark, the only emitting from his sword or letter-opener as Balin had called it. Holding the blade, he glanced around, keeping an eye out for that creature that dragged the goblin away.

It was quite obvious that he was scared.

The ones who were more capable of fighting were all captured and worse, Scarlet was all alone up there and who knows what those creatures will do once they find her.

All he could do was hope for the best and find a way out of the dark.

It didn't help that all the caverns were all the same as he ventured through them, trying to keep a straight path. It was only one turn or two but somehow, those turns would lead him back to the collapsed mushrooms he had fell upon and hidden among when the creature came.

His thought then lingered to what the creature had dropped which was a golden ring that looked so ordinary and plain. He wasn't sure why he had picked it up and nor did he care at the moment. He had to get out now.

For what was probably the sixth attempt of getting lost, he groaned in frustration was ready to give up hope until he heard something. It sounded like a soft humming sound.

Looking for the source, he could see someone far off. A figure in the dark seemed to stand there and seemed to look at him. Once they seemed to make a sort of eye contact in the dark, the being soon sped away.

"Wait!" Bilbo called out, running after to follow the figure. It's a stupid decision, but what else could he do instead of wandering in the Deep alone. As he kept following the figure, he would only be able to catch a small glimpse before the person would run on ahead. All he knew was that the person was indeed taller than he, probably a race of Man or Elf.

As the twists and turns were made to chase after figure, he suddenly heard another voice echoing in the cavern halls. It was a familiar one, the one of that creature who bashed on the goblin's head. He soon forgotten about the mysterious figure and went towards that voice instead, the curiosity of what was the creature's whereabouts trumping his own need to escape this dark hell.

**XxxxX**

The thumping of drums could be heard in the distance, growing closer and closer.

"What is this?" the Goblin King demanded before his minion answered, "Found this little thing following us as we brought the dwarves. Tried to be sneaky, but I got the jump on it."

"And what is it? Looks too frail to be of this company," he said as the goblin flipped the girl over. Her short bangs covered her closed eyes as her hood was open. However, her sharp ears were seen as the Goblin spoke, "An elf child? Here? Ha! And it seems to be that of the females. Such a great feast I will have for tonight."

"You will not touch her!" Thorin heard Kili shout, trying to push past the goblins but his brother stopped him.

"What's this then? Dwarves worrying over an elf?" the Goblin King stated.

The head dwarf of the company seemed to look back as the drums began to echo louder and louder. They all turned to see the goblins bringing in contraptions and devices of sorts, all held together in such a menacing fashion that had put fear greatly in those weaker than the strong warriors of the group.

Soon the Goblin King sang:

_Bones will be shattered, necks will be wrung!  
You'll be beaten and battered,  
from racks you'll be hung!  
You will die down here and never be found!  
Down in the deep of Goblin-Town!_

He then watched as the Goblin grabbed the unmoving body of Scarlet Deepdelver, seeing the limp form held in the large hand. However, his eyes soon noticed movement as her hand was holding on to something.

With a sudden swift movement, the girl's eyes shot open and the object in her hand was move and stabbed into the hand of the Goblin King. He yelped in pain, bellowing in rage as she flipped back. Her bare feet slipped a bit on the pile of weapons that they held, nearly kicking the Orcist away to Thorin.

However, the unsheathing of it as it was moved made a sound that seemed to make all the pale creatures stare at it. Soon, fear was sketched upon their faces. The Goblin King cowered to his throne, shouting out the swords name in fear. She was suddenly forced down to the ground, feeling leather slashing into her back. Yelping a bit in pain, she could barely see that the others were also getting the same treatment.

Her eyes then fell to Thorin as he was thrown back to the ground, held down as a goblin hurried toward the fallen dwarf with a chiseled bone knife. Another crack of the leather whips on her back and she felt a strong sting. It hit her skin and she could feel something trickling down her back.

Suddenly, a boom was heard and a blinding light shook the platform. All was silent and dark. She slowly pushed herself off the ground, holding her head as she was ready to stumble forward. An arm shot out, holding her up as she looked to see the familiar grey loose sleeve.

"Take up arms…" the old voice spoke, holding his staff and sword at the ready. Yet no one moved but she slowly stood up, greeted by a slight glanced by the wizard.

"Fight… **FIGHT!**"

As if those words were magical, the dwarves soon stood up and quickly grabbed for their weapons, each fighting against the goblins that tried to grab at them. Gandalf quickly pushed Scarlet to be a bit far away from the fray and also near the bridge that did not hold the most of the creatures.

Then she saw the Orcist on the ground and Thorin unarmed. Staring around, she saw that Nori was the closest. Calling to him, she pointed to the blade as he easily understood from Thorin's predicament on what she was trying to say.

A snarl was heard behind her as she turned to see a goblin ready to thrust his sword at her. Quickly jumping away, Scarlet then took out her rope dart and threw it forward. The goblin easily moved out of the way and was about to attack again when the whooshing sounds of the rope distracted him. It also didn't help that the girl seemed to move fluidly before the blade at the end of the rope sliced through his skin with each movement as he was close.

Soon, she threw the dagger again as it pierced into the creature's throat. Swinging it away, she could see the dark blood coating the knife and partially dripping down. Scarlet wanted to drop it, not wanting to feel it touching her fingers until she heard the Goblin King roar behind her.

Ready to defend herself once again, she saw that the Goblin King wasn't after her but at Thorin. However, the dwarf held the Goblin Cleaver ready as he swung downward. The large goblin coward away from the sword, the obvious ranting before was simply verbalizing his great fear of the blade.

Seeing him stumbling back, Scarlet noticed that if he were to move a bit more, he would topple over the edge and gone. Throwing her rope dart towards a stick pillar, she tugged hard as the obese goblin tripped backwards and over the edge, falling into the dark abyss. She was a bit surprised that she was able to hold that tensely as the impact of his foot hooking on to the rope just for that moment nearly jerked her down.

Scarlet and Thorin stared at each other as she felt slightly out of breath, standing a bit tall despite her height before sporting a relieved smile to see their faces.

"Follow me!" Gandalf called to them as they and the rest of the company hurried to follow. Scarlet saw Ori pausing to pick up sling shot. Rushing to him, she ushered him to head forward as all of them ran for their lives.

**XxxxX**

It was a disaster for him to even walk into the darkness without a real plan.

It was a mistake for him to even leave the Shire in the first place as he continued to run through crevices and narrow rocky halls. Bilbo had to find the way out before that Gollum creature could come and kill him. Even with a sword in his hand, Bilbo still feared the rock-wielding creature. He glanced around, trying to find that figure from before.

But what if that was Gollum earlier, just luring him to a death trap?

He couldn't think of that now as he found yet another crevice, trying to sidle through it. He nearly got through when he was stopped. Moving and trying to nudge through it, he looked down to see his brass buttons of his vest were keeping him from escaping to the other side. He grunted and strained, sucking in his gut but the buttons were just not letting him through.

The snarling had stopped but the pattering of feet were heard as he looked over to the path he had left behind, seeing the glowing eyes of Gollum now staring at something… at him!

He moved, panicking as he jerked his body to force himself through as Gollum snarled at him. "Give it back to us!" Gollum demanded, the high and croaking voice echoing in the cavern. He felt the end nearing, eyeing at the stone in the creature's hand and remembering how that same rock crushed in the goblin's head.

A hand seemed to grab him from the other side, unable to see who it was as he was yanked through, his brass buttons snapping off. He fell to the ground ungracefully before letting go the ring that was in his palm. It flew into the air as his instincts told him to catch it. It fumbled around his fingers, as if trying to slide away until it slipped on to his middle finger. Everything began to be hazed, like a dream but he was awake. He heard footsteps, nothing like his own or that of the pursuing creature. Looking around, he found a larger opening and saw someone retreating away. He was about to call to the person before he saw Gollum pounce out.

His breath was halted, feeling great fear as Gollum began to look around. His eyes seemed to glance the others, but for some reason, there was no recognition. He wasn't even staring at him for long, as if he wasn't there. Staring briefly at the ring on his hand, he wondered for just a second on just what was this accessory's magic.

"Thief!" shouted Gollum as he pattered further away from him, shouting accusations at the unseen hobbit. Bilbo then stood up, seeing the creature going further. If he was assuming that the hired burglar was heading for the outside, that means Gollum would lead the way back to the surface.

**XxxxX**

The dwarf company with Gandalf in the lead continued on fleeing from the goblins of the Deep, hearing their trills and snarls after them. Scarlet glanced back briefly to see that they were still on their tail. In a movement to deter their chase, she swung her chain whip as one of them got close enough to be whacked across the face and into the rock wall. She resumed her escape, trailing after Nori before goblins suddenly appeared in their path. Their momentum could not be stopped as they moved to a different path than the rest of the company as the female hobbit noticed that the others were also separated on their levels of the town.

Nori kept on swinging his knives at the goblins that got close as Scarlet swung her chain whip around. The pale creatures kept their distance but were obviously still going to tear them apart. She was too focused on what was trying to get her that she didn't realize where she was walking. A bump on her backside made her look over her shoulder to see the endless darkness, and that little distraction caused the goblin creatures in front of her to jump at her.

She quickly jumped back but threw her rope dart out to something, anything that will keep her from falling. Luckily, it snag into the rock face of the wall as she then swung down to the lower level beams. Rolling to soften her landing, she yanked on the rope dart the best before she saw Fili run past her. "Come on!" he called to her as she didn't hesitate to leave her rope dart behind and taking out the chain whip.

There were many twist and turns, near deaths for all of them. There was even a moment when a bridge was swinging back and forth and they had nearly lost Fili when it was cut lose to block the goblins' path. But in the end, they were able to save themselves as they were reaching the outskirts of Goblin Town. The feeling of freedom from the darkness of the Deep waved over her as Gandalf took the lead once again.

Suddenly, the Goblin King broke from beneath the wooden bridge that separated them from the rock path that could probably take them outside, his wart-covered chin wobbling in their view as he shouted, "You think you can escape me?!" Swinging his staff with the human skull, it nearly bashed Gandalf off the bridge but instead made him stumble backwards into Dori and Nori. Thankfully, they were able to keep him from fully falling on to the bridge as he was brought back forward.

Scarlet watched as the wizard swung his blade and cutting into the Goblin's stomach as the creature yelped in pain. Holding it closed the best he could, Scarlet's attention was soon moved towards the goblins that were screeching at them. Suddenly, another thump was heard that made the bridge beneath their feet jerk just ever so slightly.

"…this isn't gonna be good," she muttered as she looked back down just enough to see the support beams collapse and making the bridge fall down with them on it.

* * *

_**Alright! Finally got this chapter done! Sorry for the long delay. I have midterms this week and finally got around to typing this through a small writer's block. My muse has been leaning to other things but luckily I have the Hobbit movie and book to pull me back.**_

_**Hopefully I'll get another up either by the end of this month or midway of next month. Ta for now! Thanks for those you have followed this story too!**_


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